It was a busy year in Cayman’s courtrooms, which saw trials involving murders, a senior politician, human smuggling, and a plethora of other cases.
Murdering brothers to remain in UK prison
A Grand Court ruling in November determined that brothers Justin Ramoon and Osbourne Douglas should remain in a British prison rather than return to Cayman to serve their sentences for the 2015 murder of Jason Powery outside the Globe Bar in George Town.
Acting Grand Court Judge Marva McDonald-Bishop ruled that then Governor Helen Kilpatrick was entitled to make the decision to send the two men to the UK under the 1884 Colonial Prisoners Act.
The men, who are serving their sentences at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, had argued that they had been deprived of their human right to see their young children. McDonald-Bishop, in her ruling, determined that the governor had properly balanced the impact on the men and their children with the threat they posed to the community.
They had been transferred to the UK prison in 2017 amid claims they were planning an armed jail break.
Neither the men nor their lawyers were allowed to see the intelligence reports that led to the decision to remove them from the islands, as the documents were deemed to be classified material.
9-year sentence for possession of untraceable ‘ghost’ gun
Mitchell Chean Ebanks, 55, who claimed he found a backpack containing an untraceable so-called ‘ghost’ gun, bullets and drugs on a beach in East End, was sentenced in November to nine years in prison.
He admitted possessing a Glock 17 9mm handgun, which had been fitted with an attachment that could convert it into a fully automatic weapon, along with 29 live rounds of 9mm ammunition.
The weapon and bullets, as well as 11.6 ounces of cocaine and 1.8 ounces of ganja, were found by police during a search of Ebanks’ home in Rennie Ebanks Road in West Bay on 30 May. Police also recovered three magazines – a standard size one, an high-capacity one, and a drum-style one, the court heard.
Justice Cheryll Richards, passing sentence, said the weapon seized by police was a Polymer80 firearm, based on a Glock design, which she said is known as a ‘ghost’ gun as it has no serial number, and is therefore untraceable.
Legal woes for McKeeva Bush
Former premier McKeeva Bush found himself before the courts twice in 2024, but was not convicted of any of the charges he faced in either of the two cases.
In July, a jury found him not guilty of historical rape and indecent assault charges, alleged to have occurred more than 20 years ago.
This occurred five months after a judge threw out a case in which Bush was alleged to have indecently assaulted two female civil servants at a government-hosted cocktail reception at The Ritz-Carlton while intoxicated.
In that case, Justice Stanley John determined that there had been an abuse of the process “by which the decision to prosecute” Bush had been made. Later, the judge, in his written ruling, admitted he had made an error in halting the entire case, stating that he should only have dropped the charges relating to one of the women.
That was not the end of the matter, as Court of Appeal judges in November agreed to hear an appeal of John’s decision. That hearing has been scheduled for May next year.
Former football executive Watson’s fraud sentence cut
The Court of Appeal in November cut former Cayman Islands Football Association executive Canover Watson’s eight-year sentence by 12 months.
Watson had been jailed in April 2023 after being convicted of fraud and money laundering of US$1.54 million, which occurred in 2013-14.
His CIFA colleague Bruce Blake had been sentenced to two years in prison at the time for a related charge of false accounting.
Both men appealed against their convictions and sentencing. Their conviction appeals were not successful, and the Court of Appeal judges opted not to reduce Blake’s sentence.
Jury finds man guilty of stalking ex-boyfriend
A man accused of stalking his ex-boyfriend, as well as driving a car at the man and his girlfriend while they were out for a run, was found guilty of the offences in November.
Theodore O’Neil Morgan was remanded in custody by Justice Cheryll Richards and the case was adjourned until early 2025 for sentencing.
Following a 10-day trial, a jury agreed with the prosecution that the defendant had often driven past his former boyfriend’s home, had urinated on his car, let himself into his ex’s property with a stolen key, and peeped through his windows.
The jury took about an hour and a half to unanimously convict Morgan of a stalking charge, as well as a second charge of committing a reckless and negligent act – driving his car at the couple.
The court had heard that the victim had repeatedly reported the “relentless” harassment to police before action was taken.
Four convicted of Royal Bank of Canada heist
Four people were convicted in May of committing a half-million-dollar raid on the Royal Bank of Canada’s cash machines in George Town in 2016.
David Bodden Jr., Statan Clarke and Elton Webster were each found guilty of burglary.
Webster’s wife Eliza was convicted of possession of criminal property – $4,000 of the stolen money, which had been found on her as she prepared to fly out of Owen Roberts International Airport to go to Miami on a spending spree.
In November, Bodden was jailed for four years, Clarke for three-and-a-half years, and Elton Webster for three-and-a-half years. Eliza Webster was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years.
The court had heard that Bodden, who worked for the bank, had deactivated the branch’s security system and left the door open so Elton Webster could enter the building and empty several cash-dispensing machines. Clarke acted as the getaway driver.
Man convicted for double murder
Wayne Alphonso Bellafonte Jr., 33, accused of killing two people and injuring a third in a deadly shooting outside the Globe Bar in George Town bar in 2021, was found guilty in September of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
A Grand Court jury delivered a unanimous verdict in the case, which had undergone numerous delays since Bellafonte was first brought to court in October 2022 for the shooting deaths of Mark Andre Ebanks, 36, and Eldon Walton, 55, on 1 July 2021.
Ebanks died on the night of the shooting and Walton, who was shot in the leg and chest, succumbed to his injuries about two weeks later.
The jury also found Bellafonte guilty of one count of possession of an unlicensed firearm.
The court had heard that Bellafonte was one of three masked men who had made their way through the dimly lit back roads of the Central Scranton neigbourhood to the bar, where they opened fire on a group of men gathered outside the establishment.
Gunfire had been returned during the shooting, and one of the three shooters was struck in the shoulder. Later, blood found in one of the vehicles used by the gunmen was matched to Bellafonte, who, the jury heard, had been treated for a gunshot wound at the George Town Hospital about an hour after the shooting.
Yacht couple convicted of smuggling Ethiopian refugees
A 52-year-old yacht skipper convicted of smuggling two Ethiopian refugees into Cayman was sentenced to four years in jail in September. His 39-year-old wife, said to have played a lesser role, was jailed for 40 months.
The couple’s baby daughter, who was also on board the boat, is now a ward of the High Court of England and Wales, the court heard.
In passing down the sentence, Chief Magistrate Angelyn Hernandez said it was clear the pair, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had deliberately broken the law for profit when they agreed to transport Kedir Osama Musa and Tilahum Assafa Bruke, who were mistreated throughout the voyage, to other countries.
The court heard that the two refugees were abused, shouted at, subjected to racist taunts, and kept short of food and water.
$100,000 shopping sprees land scammers in jail
A gang of American credit card fraudsters who bought almost US$100,000 worth of luxury jewellery and electronics during a lavish spending spree in the Cayman Islands were jailed in July.
A court heard that Dave Obaseki, 33, Michael Capers and Sean Luke, both 32, departed New York City in March for Grand Cayman with approximately 40 stolen credit and debit cards, and embarked on spending spree, purchasing luxurious designer jewellery, colognes and expensive electronic items, such as tablets, laptops and earphones, with the cards.
They racked up a bill of more than US$92,000 less than one week after their arrival.
The men were each charged with obtaining property by deception, to which they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Defendant who hit man with car found not guilty of murder
A Grand Court jury in June acquitted Bryan Roy Welcome of murder in relation to a heated verbal confrontation that ended with Welcome running over and killing former customer Omar Ryan.
The jury, who returned a unanimous verdict on the murder charge, was also given an option of convicting on an alternate charge of manslaughter, which they rejected.
Welcome admitted he was the driver who struck and killed Ryan on the evening of 8 July 2023 but stated he had been in fear for his life and acting in self-defence after Ryan confronted him over a $50 debt Ryan owed Welcome. The court heard that, following that confrontation, Ryan followed Welcome in his car to Welcome’s warehouse in Industrial Park in George Town.
CCTV cameras captured footage of Ryan getting out of his vehicle and shouting and gesturing toward Welcome’s car. It then showed Welcome hitting Ryan with his car, and then getting out of his car and kicking him in the head. The footage was shown to the jury.
Welcome told the jury he feared Ryan had a gun and he believed he had come to the warehouse “to kill me or do me harm, and my son”.
Doctor killed by shrapnel from faulty airbag
A Coroner’s Court jury in June determined that newly qualified doctor, Amber Martinez, 29, had died “by misadventure”, after hearing evidence that a metallic fragment from the airbag inflator had shot into her neck “like a bullet”, killing her instantly, before her Honda Fit burst into flames in October 2022.
This evidence only came to light after her family engaged lawyers and experts to help prove that the shrapnel recovered from her neck during her post-mortem analysis had caused her death.
The forensic pathologist who carried out the autopsy at first assumed the metallic fragment had likely transferred to her body during the blaze that engulfed the car, but later amended his findings after Michael DiCicco, an expert the family hired, determined categorically that the piece was part of the booster tube from the airbag.
It emerged that the Takata airbag in her car had been subject to a worldwide recall.
Martinez died just yards from her home in East End as she was driving to work at her new job at the Health Services Authority.
23-year sentence for manslaughter over $175 debt
Javon James Dixon was sentenced to 23 years in prison in May for shooting and killing his friend in 2022 over a $175 debt.
Dixon was convicted of shooting Jovin Omar Fuentes in broad daylight in front of the victim’s family members on the roadside of Shamrock Road in Bodden Town during an argument about an unpaid car-rental fee.
Dixon had denied killing Fuentes, instead claiming a man he vaguely knew as ‘Blacks’ was the gunman.
Dixon was first tried on the matter in 2023 which ended in a hung jury after they failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Man convicted of raping child he groomed on social media
A 24-year-old man, who posed as a child on social media to befriend and groom a 13-year-old girl before molesting, assaulting and raping her, was convicted in May by a Grand Court jury.
A court order prevents media from releasing his identity.
The jury in the case delivered unanimous guilty verdicts against the defendant for charges of sexual communications with a child, meeting a child after sexual communications, indecent assault, gross indecency and rape.
The George Town man, originally from the UK, shortly after arriving on island began conversing with the young teen on Snapchat, a social media app that allows users to automatically delete their messages, photos and videos once they’ve been sent.
During the trial, which lasted more than two weeks, the court heard that the defendant and the girl exchanged more than 2,000 messages. Some of these included nude images of both parties and videos of the defendant performing lewd acts on himself.
From the trial’s inception, the defendant accepted that he had sexually explicit conversations with the child, claiming that he believed she was 17 years old and turning 18. He also accepted some degree of sexual contact, but claimed it was initiated by the complainant. He denied raping her.
Man jailed for 5 months for starving dog
A man who denied veterinary care to his dog, that was found starving and emaciated, was sentenced in May to five months in prison for what the sentencing magistrate described as one of the worst cases of animal neglect she has encountered.
Warlito Damasco Samelo Jr., of the Philippines, was convicted of one count of cruelty to an animal in his absence in relation to his dog Brun-Brun, who was renamed Wilbur by rescuers.
Magistrate Philippa McFarlane in denying Samelo’s defence lawyer’s request for a suspended sentence, said, “These courts must send a clear message, that of deterrence. When you are considering owning an animal, you must be ready to take on the responsibility that comes with it, or face the consequence.”
Wilbur was rescued in October 2023 by animal charity One Dog at a Time, after the dog was found by a neighbour in Prospect, not far from Samelo’s home. The dog was taken to veterinarians who attempted to restore his health, but he died soon after.
Describing the state Wilbur had been found in, McFarlane said, “The very fat from around the animal’s eyes and other parts of its head were gone. The animal’s eyes were infected. It had heartworm and hookworm. There were worms in its faecal matter.”
This case led to the widespread calls for animal cruelty laws to be better enforced and a campaign called Justice for Wilbur was launched.
2 jailed for gambling den fatal shooting
The men responsible for the shooting death of retired prison officer Harry Elliott Jr., who was killed during a botched robbery of an illegal gambling den in 2022, were jailed in April.
The gunman and lead robber Justin Kyle Jackson was sentenced to 11 years and nine months in prison for the shooting. His accomplice, Eric Brian Williams Soto, who was unarmed but took part in the attempted robbery, was jailed for 10 years.
In November 2023, both men had been convicted of manslaughter in relation to Elliott’s killing, which happened on 25 April 2022.
During the sentencing hearing, Justice Cheryll Richards noted that Jackson, who was unmasked during the attempted robbery, had routinely targeted illegal gambling dens – robbing at least one per week.
Serial con artist jailed for 80 months over rental scam
Judith Douglas, 57, was sentenced in February to more than six-and-a-half years in prison for scamming potential tenants out of thousands of dollars in rent deposits on a single property.
Grand Court Justice Cheryll Richards, in passing sentence, said Douglas had targeted “vulnerable” victims – low-income work-permit holders – when she advertised a rental unit at Diaz Lane in George Town and took deposits from them, even though the property already had a tenant.
The judge described Douglas as having a high risk of reoffending in light of the fact that she had been previously convicted of similar types of crimes.
Douglas had admitted stealing nearly $70,000 from a string of victims in a rental scam that left them homeless and scrambling for cash. She entered 28 guilty pleas, six partial guilty pleas, and four not guilty pleas to 36 counts of obtaining property by deception.
She claimed to have squandered the proceeds in Cayman’s illegal ‘gambling dens’.
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