Evidence was not concealed, court finds

A Grand Court trial scheduled for five days lasted less than three hours after Crown Counsel Michael Snape said it seemed pointless to continue the case for the prosecution and Justice Alexander Henderson dismissed the charge. 

Lancelot Ming, who worked as an auto repairman, was accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by concealing the right fender of a car involved in a road fatality in December 2007. The alleged concealment was on the top of a cargo container in the yard of the garage where Mr. Ming had his workshop. 

Defence Counsel Howard Hamilton, instructed by Attorney Margeta Facey-Clarke, had questioned one of the police officers in the case and elicited from him the fact that the fender could be seen while he was standing on the ground. Further, there was bush nearby which would have provided an opportunity for concealment. 

After hearing from officers and viewing photos of the fender on the container, Justice Henderson said he could not see that placing the fender there was an act that tended to make it less obvious or less visible to an officer searching the premises. The act of placing the fender on the container did not make it less likely police would find it and the act did not amount to concealing it or even attempting to conceal it. “In my view there is not and could not be any case to answer,” he declared and dismissed the charge. 

Earlier he pointed out that, for the charge to be proved, the Crown would have had to show that Mr. Ming had intended to obstruct the police investigation. 

The judge thanked Mr. Snape, telling him, “You’ve presented the case very competently and you have done your best.” 

When the trial by judge alone began on Monday, 12 May, Mr. Snape explained that the fender was from a car involved in the hit-and-run that occurred on 15 December 2007 around 11.30pm on North West Point Road.  

Caymanian Compass reports afterwards said Health Services Authority accounts manager Quindel Ames, 55, was leaving an HSA holiday party at Boatswain’s Beach when a car struck her in the pedestrian crossing and knocked her down. She was transported to hospital where she was later pronounced dead. 

Mr. Snape said Mr. Ming’s involvement began the next morning when he returned a phone call he had missed from Mark Jefferson late the previous night. Jefferson asked him to come look at his car and do some work on it; he said his girlfriend had “mashed up” the vehicle.  

In his several statements to police in the days that followed, Mr. Ming said he saw dents in the car’s right fender and some cracks in the windscreen. He and Jefferson took the fender off and Jefferson asked him to take it to his workshop and fix it. Mr. Ming told police he never knew anything was wrong, but he had a funny feeling. The next day, 17 December, Jefferson told him he had hit somebody. 

On 21 December, Mr. Ming went to the George Town Police Station and asked to speak to Chief Inspector Courtney Myles, who was the senior investigating officer. He told Mr. Myles where the fender was and what Jefferson had admitted to him. He also indicated that he had not said so in a previous statement because he was sitting with a policeman in a room where he was concerned he might be overheard. 

In giving his evidence during the trial, Mr. Myles agreed with the defence attorney that, until Mr. Ming told him it was Mark Jefferson driving the car, he had no evidence “fingering” Jefferson as the driver. 

There was physical evidence linking the car to the fatality, such as beads found in the right hinge area of the bonnet. They matched beads from Ms Ames’ dress. When asked about it, Jefferson replied, “I done told you I don’t have nothing to do with this.” 

On 18 December, Jefferson was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Seven months later, when he was fatally shot in West Bay, Jefferson had not yet been charged.  

According to police, the file involving Ms Ames’ death had been sent to the Attorney General’s office for review, but a final ruling on charges had not been made (Caymanian Compass, 15 July 2008).