Steven Causwell v R
| Jurisdiction | Jamaica |
| Judge | P Williams JA |
| Judgment Date | 18 November 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | JM 2020 CA 141 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Jamaica) |
| Docket Number | SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL APPEAL NO 80/2016 |
| Date | 18 November 2020 |
[2020] JMCA Crim 41
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
THE HON Mr Justice Morrison P
THE HON Miss Justice P Williams JA
THE HON Miss Justice Simmons JA (AG)
SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL APPEAL NO 80/2016
Garth A McBean QC and Miss Diana Johnson for the applicant
Miss Paula Llewellyn QC, Director of Public Prosecutions and Kemoy McEkron for the Crown
The applicant, Steven Causwell, was indicted for the murder of Nadia Mitchell, committed between 15 and 16 July 2008. His trial commenced on 12 July 2016 in the Home Circuit Court before Lawrence-Beswick J and a jury. After a trial that had several adjournments, on 8 September 2016 he was convicted for the offence. On 10 October 2016, the learned trial judge sentenced the applicant to imprisonment for life, with a stipulation that he should serve a minimum of 20 years' imprisonment at hard labour before becoming eligible for parole.
The applicant applied for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence and, on 12 February 2019, a single judge of this court refused the application. Having had his application refused, he has renewed his application before us, as is his right.
The applicant and the deceased had been in a relationship that had lasted about eight years. Early in 2008, the deceased began another relationship with Kevin McCormack and spent from 7 to 15 July 2008 with him, at his home. After they spent the night of 7 July together, Mr McCormack dropped the deceased off at her apartment at Oaklands Apartments, Block G. He saw the applicant standing at the front of the building and watched as both the deceased and the applicant entered the apartment building. He later saw her at his home and noted that she was crying. She stayed at his home until 15 July when, sometime after 6 o'clock in the evening, he dropped her off at her apartment, intending to return for her sometime later that night.
At about 8:00 pm that night, Miss Jodian Brown, who had been friends with the deceased for many years, went to visit with her. At about 11:30 pm that night, the applicant arrived at the deceased's apartment. He asked Miss Brown to leave and, when she eventually did so, he thanked her. The deceased accompanied Miss Brown out and then returned to her apartment.
At approximately 1:25 am, Constable Nevins Glenn and Corporal Renardo Israel were on patrol duty. They were at the August Town Police Station when they received a report that caused them to proceed to the University Hospital of the West Indies (“UHWI”). In the Accident and Emergency Department, they were shown the body of a female lying on a stretcher. The body was eventually identified as that of the deceased.
A man was seen beside the body holding her hand and crying. The man was the applicant. He made a report of what he said had occurred that night leading to his transporting the non-responsive body of the deceased to the hospital.
There were no eyewitnesses as to what had happened between the applicant and the deceased after she was last seen alive by her friend, Miss Brown. The Crown therefore relied on circumstantial evidence to prove the guilt of the applicant.
Miss Brown had met the applicant approximately one month before 15 July 2008. She described how, on the night of 15 July when he came to the apartment, the applicant told the deceased to ask her to leave, indicating that he needed to talk to the deceased, alone. When the deceased failed to do so, the applicant himself told Miss Brown that she needed to leave. However, she ignored his request. The applicant eventually said to the deceased, “since you don't want her to leave I am going to ask you in front of her. Are you fucking him?” The deceased did not respond to him.
Miss Brown decided to leave shortly thereafter and the deceased walked with her downstairs. While they were on their way out, the deceased spoke with someone on her cellular phone. Mr McCormack was the person with whom she spoke. He testified that she had called him at about 11:45 pm. She told him she was letting Miss Brown out of the apartment. She called him again at 11:46 pm to let him know that she was upstairs but was receiving another call and would call him back. She never did.
Miss Brown testified that when she got home sometime after 11:45 pm, she called the deceased to let her know she was safely home, but the deceased did not answer.
Sometime after 1:30 am on 16 July 2008, when Constable Glenn saw the applicant at the UHWI with the lifeless body of the deceased, he noted bruises and some blood on the deceased's body. He saw what he described as a black and blue left eye with a small laceration to the hairline. There was blood coming from the nose, some scrapes along the shoulder, back, arm, legs and the toenail of her big toe on her right foot was broken.
Constable Glenn testified that the applicant was asked by Corporal Israel “what happen”, to which the applicant responded that he had got into a fight with the deceased and that he was the one who punched her in the eye. The applicant further told him that the deceased had left the apartment and after about 10 minutes he had tried calling her and sending her text messages but got no response. Constable Glenn said the applicant described how he went in search of the deceased which took him downstairs where he found her lying motionless. He tried to speak to her and shook her but she didn't respond. Eventually, the applicant said, he lifted her up and took her to the hospital. Constable Glenn said at that the applicant was eventually escorted by himself and Corporal Israel to the Constant Spring Police Station.
At about 4:00 am on 16 July 2008, Miss Brown received a phone call from the mother of the deceased, Miss Perdie Newman. After speaking to Miss Newman, Miss Brown called Mr McCormack who she knew to be the deceased's boyfriend at the time. Mr McCormack said he tried unsuccessfully to call the deceased. He eventually picked up Miss Brown and they went to the deceased's apartment. Miss Brown knocked on the apartment door but got no answer. They then went to the UHWI where they were shown the body of the deceased.
Under cross-examination, Miss Brown was confronted with the statement she had given to the police and accepted that she did not see recorded in it that she had told the police that the applicant had asked the deceased, “are you fucking him?”
Mrs Nadine Williams-Peart resided in the apartment directly above the one the deceased had lived in. She testified that during the night of 15 July 2008, sometime after 11:00 pm, she was awoken by a sound she described as similar to when she was “taking [her] laundry hamper down, that dragging, taking [her] laundry down the staircase sound” and as a “throbbing”. The sound lasted for about two to three minutes and she said it seemed as if it was heading in the direction of the washroom/laundry area which was on the third floor.
Miss Newman was at her home in Saint Elizabeth on 16 July 2008, when she received a call which caused her to call Miss Brown and to proceed to Kingston later that morning. She arrived at the UHWI at about 11:00 am and was shown her daughter's body. She then went to her daughter's apartment where she saw Mr McCormack and some police officers. She was not permitted to enter the apartment at that time.
Detective Sergeant Derrick Amos, who was a detective corporal stationed at the Constant Spring Police Station at the time, was another officer who received a report which caused him to proceed to the UHWI on the morning of 16 July 2008. On his way there, he received some information that caused him return to the Constant Spring Police Station CIB. There he saw Corporal Israel, Constable Glenn and Inspector Marlene Williams with the applicant.
In the presence of the applicant, Corporal Israel handed to Detective Sergeant Amos the applicant's licensed firearm which had been taken from his motor car. Corporal Israel reported to Detective Sergeant Amos that he had received information from the authorities at the hospital that the deceased had been taken there by the applicant. Detective Sergeant Amos said Corporal Israel reported to him that the applicant had stated that he and the deceased had a dispute which developed into a fight at Oaklands Apartments, Apartment 405, Block G. Corporal Israel reported that the applicant further said that after the fight, the deceased ran out of the house and he later found her at the back of Block G.
Detective Sergeant Amos said that he then asked the applicant if he heard what Corporal Israel had said and the applicant responded that he had. Detective Sergeant Amos testified that he then asked the applicant, “if that is so and he said yes”.
Detective Sergeant Amos testified that he then asked the applicant whether he wished to tell him what had happened and the following exchange took place between the officer and the prosecutor:
“Q. Tell us what he told you?
A. He told me that he went to visit [the deceased] at her apartment, and they have a dispute and a confrontation and a fight during that fight she gave him… he gave her thumps and licks…
Q. He give hear [sic] some what?
A. Thumps and licks and she ran out from there. He said he sat in the couch for a period of time and during that time, he did not seeing [sic] [the deceased] come back he began to call her on her phone and even send text message. He didn't get any respond [sic] and so he went out, he locked the door and went out the room door and went out to search for her. He later found her at the back of Block G. So he took her up, he tried to render CPR, he got no response, so he put her in the car and he drove her to the University Hospital.”
Following his conversation with the applicant, Detective Sergeant Amos went to Oaklands...
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