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Prince Moore reports
A former police constable who had been on the run for nearly two decades in connection with the 2007 fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man in Kingston was granted $500,000 bail in the Gun Court on Wednesday.
Morris Lee, 67, was granted bail with conditions, following an application by his attorney, Chadwick Berry.
He is also represented by attorney Christopher Townsend.
Ravin Thompson, 18, was reportedly killed while being transported to the Kingston Public Hospital in a service vehicle after sustaining a bullet wound.
The official police account at the time reportedly stated that Thompson was killed during a shootout between members of the security forces and gunmen in the St. Andrew South Police Area on July 27, 2007.
However, it is alleged that during the journey to the hospital, the police vehicle stopped on Darling Street, near the railway station, where an M16 rifle was placed in Thompson's hands before he was shot by two Constables.
Following the fatal shooting, the matter was referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2007. In June 2008, the office ruled that Constable Lee and his colleague, Mark Russell should be charged.
However, both men had fled Jamaica, and several attempts to execute the warrants were unsuccessful.
Constable Russell was eventually extradited in 2012. He was tried and convicted of Thompson's murder in 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with 24 years to be served before becoming eligible for parole.
However, in October 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction and set aside his sentence, citing factors including extraordinary delays in the judicial process and issues surrounding the trial evidence.
Constable Lee was arrested at Norman Manley International Airport on May 28 this year after being deported over immigration-related issues.
In court on Wednesday, he denied the allegations against him.
Lee is scheduled to return to court on November 25.
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