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By Racquel Porter
"Justice system fail and I need justice for my children."
That's Angella.
Angella spent the last 20 years waiting for justice for the killing of three of her seven children when her house was firebombed on September 14, 2024. Her twin boys five-year-old Tyrique and Tyrone Henry and her three year-old step daughter Moesha were asleep when their house was firebombed two days after Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Jamaica.
We've changed her name to protect her identity.
Justice evaded her on January 23, 2025, when High Court Judge Justice Leighton Pusey freed the two men she said she saw lit light a bottle torch and throw it onto her house on Port Henderson Road in Portmore.
The attack
In an interview days after the ruling, Angella explained the events leading up to the night she will never forget. She said earlier in the day, she had an argument with Rohan McCarthy and Ricardo Britton.
"The rain fall we had a lot of water settled on the premises Rohan McCarthy and Ricardo Britton wanted to cut a trench in front of my home so I tell them no I am not giving you any permission because I have my kids there. Dem seh a lie mi a tell di trench affi cut. Mi seh it not cutting mi seh unnuh ave paper fi unnuh property. I have paper for where I am living suh we have an argument. I went to the Bridgetport Police Station. The police came and seh yuh cyaah cut the property if she don't want it to cut."
Angella said the police warning fell on deaf ears as the men returned with a tractor.
"I run di tractor man .....I called the police again they came back... Rohan McCarthy di one weh name Pig Seed seh gyal a come yuh come bout yah innuh and bun we fi bun yuh out innuh. Mr Whyte turn to Pig Seed and seh thatt's a threat and don't carry out yuh threat. Di other police said you know I can take you into custody for a threat.
Angella stayed up while her seven children slept, "because I know a confrontation with them and they said they were going to burn out the house."
"I heard something like water throwing around the house so I get up and started to look. I never see nothing so I went to hole in back room. I peep through the door jam and I saw two shadows. I saw when they light a bottle torch. I recognised the faces of Rohan McCarthy him name Pig Seed and Blacks strike the lighter he hold a bottle torch in his hand and by time he light it he throw it on the house".
In an effort to save her children from the blaze that had engulfed a section of the two bedroom wooden structure, Angella said she frantically called the children and hurried them outside.
By this time, the room in which the twin boys and Moesha were sleeping was already engulfed in flames. When the smoke cleared, firefighters found the remains of the twins. Moesha was taken to hospital where she died.
Conviction then Successful Appeal
Britton and McClarthy were arrested and charged in 2004. They were convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life imprisonment with eligibility for parole after 14 years. They mounted an appeal and won.
The Appeal Court ordered a retrial and recommended that the retrial take place before the end of the 2012 Michaelmas Term. However, the retrial did not proceed until 2014 and resulted in a hung jury. This means jurors were unable to agree a verdict.
Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn said that in 2016 another attempt was made to have the case tried.
"On a number of occasions between 2016 up to 2018 the matter was not reached because the court was engage in other trial matters. I see where the court was made aware that the forensic expert was now deceased this was in November 2018. So the crown was given an adjournment to take steps to use section 31(D) of the Evidence Act which would have allowed us once we laid the foundation to put the report into evidence".
The matter was subsequently set for a number of mention dates: "And this is where we had the rub because in 2020, the defense kept on making applications for the transcripts and efforts were being made to get the transcripts. The transcripts of the second attempt at the trial where they had the hung jury. Now, very unfortunately those transcripts were not made available".
Permanent Stay
Justice Pusey, in making his ruling, ordered a permanent stay of the indictment charging McCarthy and Britton for the 2004 murders.
Justice Pusey made it clear that freeing the men was not an acquittal and pointed out that the evidence was sufficient to set out a prima facie case against them.
Before ordering a permanent stay of the trial, he said the delay severely prejudiced the men and in that light they could not get a fair trial.
In coming to his decision Justice Pusey said he considered the cumulative effect of the unavailability of prosecution witnesses, unavailability of original witnesses which may have supported the defence, the unavailability of the alibi witnesses for the applicants, and the unavailability of the transcript from the first trial and the lack of information as to when the transcript will become available. He also took into account the psychological impact the delay has had on the applicants, and the period of time between the alleged offence and the likely time within which this trial would be completed which had already exceeded 20 years.
Angella was not in court but learnt of Justice Pusey's ruling the following day:
"I want to see the Prime Minister. I need Justice for my children because without Justice... I need justice for my children. I need to see the PM cause somebody has to give an account for the transcript that missing off my case file. I need to see the PM this cannot be done like this I had sleepless days and nights and it is all over again cause when yuh tink dis is going to be relief it come in like it just happen. Mi lay down in a mi house and it come in like mi in a fire....Mi nah get nuh justice for my children
The DPP made it clear that the unavailability of transcripts is no fault of the crown:
"Transcripts are recorded by the court reporters on their court reporting machine. Then they are transcribed and it is the Supreme Court because it is a court of record. The Supreme Court and the Court Administration Division presided over by the Chief Justice who would be responsible and accountable for the production of transcripts. The DPP's office has nothing to do with that".
Transcripts
The backlog of outstanding transcripts is a long standing issue.
Defence attorneys and other interested parties have often expressed frustration over the lengthy delays in getting transcripts from criminal trials.
The Court of Appeal in its 2021 annual report highlighted the long delay in the production of transcripts of criminal trials as a cause for concern.
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes has promised that the judiciary will be implementing a system that will ensure transcripts are produced in a timely manner, "and I would say it is a source of great distress because that shouldn’t be happening in any modern legal system”
Speaking on TVJ’s All Angles on September 27, 2023, Chief Justice Sykes said the Judiciary plan to use technology to solve the problem: “You’ll recall that we went to Rwanda last year where we looked at the system that they have in terms of how they managing the cases in a digital space. So what we are proposing then is we have to move into that kind of environment where the files themselves are managed in an electronic space. We’re going to reduce the instances of missing files…because once you’re in a paper based system you’re always going to be prone to that kind of thing.”
On January 29, 2025, we requested an interview with the Court Administration Division to discuss the matter of the missing transcripts in greater detail.
On February 7, Court Administration replied stating: "We acknowledge your request and appreciate your interest. Currently, we are unable to provide a comment on the matter. However, we will ensure that you receive a copy of the judgment."
Angella said she thought Jamaica's criminal justice system was created to keep communities safe, to respect and restore victims but the court proceedings proved otherwise:
The men spent two years in custody after they were convicted, but were offered bail after the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial.
No Justice
Angella is adamant that justice has not been done.
"Going back to the 28th of October last year, when I went to court and they say that they can't find the transcript. They call up the matter and den dem put it back down. The police officer who took me to court carry mi dung back we were talking a seh how dem cyaah find something like that, We are talking about the big Supreme Court weh supposed to protect and care for citizens' rights suh mi a seh no. We a laugh and wi a talk wi a come down bout it. Lasst December the policeofficer told me that they found the transcripts".
Angella says the worst part of holding on to the memories is the pain of knowing that justice was not served:
"My twins ....they were so precious, they were identical twins. Every day is just like the same day I can't forget those kids. Moesha was a precious little girl I met..... when Moesha was three months and I raised that little baby to call me mommy. She was like a likkle angel. God...I don't even know what to say it honestly is like a nightmare coming all over again. Is like from the men release I can't even sleep".
Angella said she had a seemingly good relationship with the men
"Di justice system fail mi. A somebody weh mi see, sombody weh mi know, bwoy dem weh mi feed weh mi cook gi. Weh mi send dem pickney guh a school kill mi children dem and now dem get life imprisonment and dem release dem.”
After the tragedy Angella lived in several parishes before she was placed on the witness protection program.
Angella and her children were removed from the programme after the men were convicted in 2010. Since then she has been fighting for a place of her own to call home:“People from America send money send dis towards the fire. I didn’t get no help from nobody, Nutten at all mi nuh get nuh help from nobody, nobody, mi just a guh tru wid di pain inna mi heart and mi sorrows wid all mi children dem behind mi”
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