An outstanding fitness-to-plea report has prevented Tarrick Crawford from entering a plea to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving, nearly 18 months after a single-vehicle accident which claimed the life of Shayne Ewart.
Ewart, 25, of West Bay was pronounced dead on arrival at the Cayman Islands Hospital shortly after 1am on Saturday, 16 Jan. 2021.
According to police, he was in the front passenger seat of a green Honda car driven by Crawford, 28, who fled from officers in the vehicle along West Bay Road.
According to court documents, Crawford’s car “left the roadway in the vicinity of Willie Farrington Drive and collided into the side of a building structure made of concrete”.
The charge was transmitted to the Grand Court on 1 Oct. 2021, at which time a fitness-to- plea report was ordered. Since then, the matter has been brought back before the court four times. Each time, Crawford was released on bail, without a plea, because the report remained outstanding.
It is not clear when the report will be ready.
Within hours of Ewart’s death, the Office of the Ombudsman released a statement saying it was “overseeing matters in the investigation potentially involving the serious harm of a member of the public who had been in recent contact with the RCIPS”.
The findings of that investigation have not been made public.
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