R v Livingston, Drysdale and Ricketts
| Jurisdiction | Jamaica |
| Judge | Harrison, P. |
| Judgment Date | 31 July 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | JM 2006 CA 46 |
| Docket Number | Criminal Appeal Nos. 77 of 2003; 81 of 2003; 93 of 2003 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Jamaica) |
| Date | 31 July 2006 |
Court of Appeal
Harrison, J.A.; Harrison, J.A.; McCalla, J.A. (Ag.)
Criminal Appeal Nos. 77 of 2003; 81 of 2003; 93 of 2003
Frank Phipps, Q.C. & Ms. Kathryn Phipps for applicant Anneth Livingston
C.J. Mitchell for applicant Ramon Drysdale Delroy Chuck for applicant Ashley Ricketts
David Fraser, Snr. Dep. Director of Public Prosecutions (Ag.)
Ms. Meridian Kohler, Crown counsel, & Ms. Nadine White, Crown counsel (Ag.), for Crown
Criminal law - Murder — Appeal against conviction — Three accused jointly charged — Non—disclosure of evidence — Defence not prejudiced by non disclosure — Directions to jury on common design — Appropriate directions given to the jury — Conspiracy — Second appellant was found to be present aiding and abetting commission of the offence — Conduct was sufficient to show collusion — Trial judge commented on participation in the offence — Comments were appropriate in the circumstances and were relevant to the issues arising from the evidence — No prejudice to the appellant — Manslaughter should have been left to the jury on review of evidence — Appeal of the second appellant allowed — Conviction quashed — Conviction for manslaughter substituted — Sentence reduced to 20 years imprisonment.
Criminal law - Sentencing — Murder — Appellants Livingston and Drysdale sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of parole for 60 and 45 years respectively — Joint enterprise to kill — Sentence reduced to life imprisonment at hard labour with no possibility of parole for 35 years.
These applicants were convicted at the Home Circuit Court on the 10th day of April, 2003 of the murder of Shirley Playfair on 13th April 2000. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the judge specified that each should not be eligible for parole until sixty (60) years had passed in the case of Anneth Livingston, fifty-five (55) years in the case of Ramon Drysdale and forty-five (45) years in the case of Ashley Ricketts.
The relevant facts are as follows: On 13th April 2000 at about 12 noon the prosecution witness Hope Dell, whose deposition was read into evidence, was in the reception area of the deceased's office at Seymour Park, Old Hope Road in the parish of St. Andrew. The witness saw two men enter the deceased's office and go directly to the applicant Livingston's desk. They then went into the deceased's own office. Seconds later, she heard the deceased scream. The applicant Livingston, a legal secretary, was then standing at the photocopier. This witness got up and went to the deceased's office door. She saw the deceased sitting in her chair struggling with the two men on either side of her, with her hands protecting her neck. The witness ran to the lunchroom where she saw other employees Miss Thompson, Mrs. Grier and Mrs. Richards seated, and the applicant Livingston therein standing against the wall. Another prosecution witness Sonia Burke, a legal secretary, employed to the deceased also saw the two men enter and go straight to the applicant Livingston's desk. One of the men waved to the witness who returned the wave. She then heard a scream, saw prosecution witness Dell run towards the deceased's offk e and then run in the witness' direction towards the lunchroom. The witness Burke ran in the same direction.
Verna Richards, a certified paralegal secretary employed to the deceased, on the said day at 12 noon, was in the lunchroom along with Mrs. Grier and Miss Thompson when she heard a scream. The witness then heard a second scream. She then saw the applicant Livingston standing at the lunchroom door with her hand on the door knob and her back turned to the office. The witness passed the said applicant who “was blocking” her, and went towards the deceased's office. She saw the deceased and a man behind her with a knife at the left side of her neck. The man turned. Mrs. Richards exclaimed “Lawd God”, turned back and ran towards the lunchroom. She reached the bathroom beside the lunchroom when she felt someone grab the right side of her neck. She pitched forward and the hand left from her neck. She ran into an open office and bolted the door. She telephoned 119, the police. Subsequently, she saw the deceased's body on the floor in one Dr. Thomas' office, in the said premises and thereafter at the Matilda's Corner Police Station. The witness' blouse and her neck both had on blood in the area where she had been held. At an identification parade held on 15th April 2000 she identified the applicant Drysdale as the man she had seen in the deceased's office with the knife.
Prosecution witness Marjorie Falconer, a legal secretary, was in the bathroom of the office at the time of the incident, when she heard a scream. On opening the bats room door she saw a young man grab at prosecution witness Verna Richards and say “you come yah”. She closed back the door gently and remained there. She later came out. She identified one Williams, who was not at the trial, at an identification parade held subsequently, as the man whom she saw grab at the witness Richards.
Timothy Campbell, a security guard, at the complex in which the deceased's office was located, said that in the morning of the said 13th April, 2000, a 120Y Datsun motor car drove up into the complex and the occupants asked him for the number of the deceased's office. He told them and they left. The said car returned at about noon and “drove slowly to the deceased's office.” The car windows were down. Fifteen minutes later, the car drove out. Two minutes later he heard a female voice say “Security them just cut a woman's throat”. He went to Dr. Thomas' office and saw the deceased lying with her throat cut.
Cpl. Richard Hepburn and Private Hibbert, both soldiers in the Jamaica Defence Force, along with Constable Eric Lindsay of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, were on patrol in the Whitfield Town area of the parish of St. Andrew when they received a radio transmission and consequently went onto Metcalfe Street, in Whitfield Town and onto certain premises. They heard the engine of a motor car and saw a blue 120Y Datsun motor car come along Metcalfe Street towards them. The two soldiers, with weapons pointing at the car, stopped the car and ordered the men from the car. Two men came from the rear seat. Applicant Drysdale, one of the two men, ran off but was held and brought back. He had droplets of blood on the front shoulder of a white shirt he was wearing. Cons. Lindsay said in evidence that he took from applicant Drysdale's pocket a ratchet knife with blood stains. A discrepancy arose on Cons. Lindsay's evidence because, in a statement written earlier, he had said that he took the knife from the other man. Cpl. Hepburn stated that the other man, not before the Court, placed a knife on a wall nearby - it was retrieved. When asked, the applicant Drysdale said that they were coming from Maxfield Avenue where some men had tried to rob them. The applicant Ricketts said that the applicant Drysdale and the other man had chartered his car from Maxfield.
The applicant Drysdale, Ricketts and the third man were handed over to Det. Sgt. George Hall at Metcalfe Street on the same day, along with the two bloodstained knives. He took from the applicant Drysdale his blood stained shirt. Constable David Campbell swabbed the hands of the applicant Drysdale and handed the two knives and shirt of the applicant Drysdale and the swab to Miss Sherron Brydson, the government analyst at the Forensic Labaratory.
Snr. Supt. Gladstone Grant on 13th April 2000 took a statement from the applicant Ashley Ricketts, after having cautioned him. The applicant Ricketts, inter alia, said:
“I know Amin and MN. I always see them at Metcalfe Road off Maxfield Avenue in St. Andrew. I know MN for about one year and about six months - one year and about six months ago, and …
I know Amin and MN. I always see them at Metcalfe Road off Maxfield Avenue in St. Andrew. I know MN for about one year and about six months ago and I know Amin for about one year. I know that both of them live at Metcalfe Road. …
MN used my robot taxi more — MN more than one time….
MN tek mi car more than Amin and the other one dem. Mi don't remember where mi carry them to. A two time mi carry MN alone. About 8:30 a.m. today the 13th April, 2000, I was at Spanish Town Road and Waltham Park Road in the parish of St. Andrew in my …’ ‘robot taxi’, that is where I am ‘… when Amin and MN come to and tell me fi carry them Uptown on a move. Mi tek them up as usual. Them tell me seh them a goh check a lady. Me noh know the lady name but she have a office enna Seymour Park off the Old Hope Road in St. Andrew. Mi did know the place before for mi drop a lady there already. It is a short black lady. Is a work mi did get. This was about two weeks ago. Seymour Park is off Hope Road about half mile from Mountain View Avenue and it is on the left hand side going up Old Hope Road.’…
‘A security guard is always at the gate and him tek the registration number off the car dem as dem go in. When you go inside, some long upstairs building is inside there, the bigger one them is on the right hand side when you drive in. Plenty car go in and out all the while. Mostly office inside there. Mi did know where dem seh dem a goh soh mi drive up Maxfield Avenue, turn Rousseau Road onto Beechwood Avenue, go on Oxford Road and go Old Hope Road to Seymour Park. Dem never tell me where to drive. When mi reach up there and drive in Seymour Park MN — when mi reach up Seymour Park about nine a.m., 13/ 4/2000, Amin and MN come out of the car and go to the building to right when you turn in. Mi park the car under a tree on the compound. Is a mango tree and it near to the wall when you drive in and turn right. Mi wait on them and them come back about five minutes after and tell mi seh them no si the lady soh mi drive...
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