Bank card links Cleansman gang accused to murder victim at Kingston trial

A fraud officer at a Jamaican financial institution told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that one of two bank cards taken from accused Carlos Williams belonged to murder victim Zamari McKay, as the trial of the Tesa Miller faction of the Cleansman gang continued.

McKay was found with his feet bound in a rubbish heap near a recycling plant on Lakupen main road in St. Catherine on August 11, 2022. Williams, Germaine Clark, and Owen Billings face counts 28 and 29 charging them with knowingly facilitating the robbery and murder of McKay.

The officer said a detective from the now-disbanded Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch contacted him on April 25, 2023. At STOC headquarters he analysed embossed cards bearing the bank's logo and found Williams had opened an account at a St. Catherine branch in September 2021 and McKay in January 2022. Account-opening documents for both were admitted as exhibits on Tuesday.

A retired detective testified Williams was arrested in Spanish Town on April 16, 2023, after officers found 30 blank cards and two embossed bank cards in a dresser. Williams said the bank cards were his. Defence counsel Lindel Wesley asked no questions in cross-examination, while Denise Hinson, representing Billings and Clark, questioned the timing of the officer's contact with the detective. Proceedings resumed Wednesday in the Home Circuit Division in downtown Kingston.

The National Land Agency denied claims from West Albian, St. Thomas, residents that they received no notice before squatter structures were demolished last week. The agency said it has managed the Albian site since 2024 through notices, consultations, and no-trespassing signs, and that lands reserved for development had seen squatting spread beyond a designated area.

Constable Andrew Wilson received $1 million bail Tuesday on a murder charge over the May 17 shooting of Latoya Bulgin in Granville, St. James, while on duty. Kings Counsel Peter Champagnie urged the public not to prejudge the case and said Wilson, who must return to court on July 10, cooperated throughout the investigation. Bulgin was reportedly driving residents to a protest over the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old TJ Edwards when police stopped her Toyota Voxy. Police alleged she threatened to run over an officer. CCTV footage circulated widely, Wilson was interdicted, and unrest followed with roadblocks and fires in Granville.