Roger Bush has been convicted of murdering his son in a “hail of bullets”, in an apparent jealous rage brought on by rumours that the young man was having an affair with his father’s partner.
On Wednesday, 28 Sept., Acting Justice Marlene Carter, who presided over Bush’s judge-alone trial, returned guilty verdicts against him, on the charges of murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Shaquille Bush was gunned down at his Miss Daisy Lane home in West Bay. In what has been described in court as a “horrific, brutal and cowardly killing”, he was shot at 15 times on the evening of 12 Nov. 2019. Bush was 24 years old at the time of his death.
The judge recounted the evidence concerning the final two shots, “one to the back of the left chest which passed through the spine and heart [and] immobilised Shaquille Bush, and the shot to the back of the head [which] was a … coup de grâce”, adding, “The evidence is that he died in a hail of bullets.”
Although the murder occurred in 2019, Bush was not arrested or charged in relation to the incident until June 2021, after his ex-partner Nikkieta Ebanks, 33, began to cooperate with the police.
Ebanks, who became the star witness in the prosecution’s case, told the court that Bush confessed to killing his son to her and her cousin.
“He had heard the rumours that Shaquille Bush was the real father of [my young daughter] and that she looked like him,” Ebanks told the court during the trial. “Roger was upset of the rumours, and I told him it was not true and that it could not have been possible.”
When returning her verdict, Carter said she found Ebanks to be a credible person, and accepted most of her evidence.
“In order… to prove their case, the prosecution has set about to demonstrate that Roger Bush had the motive, the means and the access to kill Shaquille Bush,” said Carter. “The evidence provided by Nikkieta Ebanks has demonstrated the motive… that there was sexual jealousy on the part of the defendant; that the defendant had the means… as she observed him with a gun in his possession and on a previous occasion, she also observed him in the company of people who were also in possession of guns; and the access was clearly evident as both men lived in the same yard.”
During the nearly two-hour-long verdict hearing, Carter read briefly from parts of what she said was a lengthy judgment that was expected to be released to the public soon.
She said in her judgment she considered and accepted the evidence of RCIPS detectives, data analysts, other experts and circumstantial evidence, as well as witness testimonies of Ebanks and her cousin Candice Ebanks who gave a similar account.
“This court has observed Nikkieta Ebanks in her evidence, she was not inconsistent, she admitted how she felt about the defendant, she was angry at him for abusing her in front of her daughter,” said Carter. “Her evidence did hold up under cross-examination. I find that Nikkieta Ebanks is a reliable, truthful witness. I accept her evidence.”
Carter added that Candice Ebanks “was a forthright witness who admitted that she sometimes has issues with her memory; however, her evidence was consistent with her earlier account…”.
Bush denied killing his son. He did not give evidence in his case, which Carter said, “was because he knew there was no account or reason that he could give that would be able to withstand scrutiny”.
Upon hearing the guilty verdict, Bush sat back, smirked, drank a sip of water and eventually left the dock to go down into the court cells and outside to a waiting prison van – all under the watchful gaze of numerous police detectives and prison officers.
No date has been set for his sentencing. He was remanded back into custody.
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