Gabriel King
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Justice Lorna Shelly Williams and Amoi Leon-Issa's attorney Chukwumeka Cameron
By Racquel Porter
The Constitutional Court has ordered Amoi Leon-Issa, the mother of slain nine-year-old Gabriel King, to give investigators access to her cellular phone by 4 p.m. today.
Mrs. Leon-Issa had filed a legal challenge after St. James Parish Court Judge Sasha-Marie Ashley granted a production order last September for her to provide the phone's passcode to facilitate access to data as part of the police investigation into her son's murder.
The claimant sued the State for continued violation of her privacy rights as well as her right to informational privacy. She also sought to have the judge's order quashed and several declarations deeming different aspects of the judge's order unconstitutional.
Additionally, she wanted vindicatory damages.
But in handing down the Supreme Court decision on Friday, Justice Lorna Shelly Williams said although the production order would be a breach to Mrs. Leon-Issa's privacy, it was proportional in a free and democratic society.
The judge said the benefit gained from granting the order to aid in the investigation of Gabriel's murder far outweighed Mrs. Leon-Issa's breach of privacy.
The court ordered Mrs. Leon-Issa to produce the password to her phone by 4 p.m. today, September 29.
It also refused her request for damages.
Mrs. Leon-Issa had reported to police that she was driving along a pothole-riddled section of Tucker main road in St. James on Janaury 13, 2022, when men attacked her, dragged her from the vehicle and sped off with her son still inside the car.
Gabriel King was later found murdered in his mother's vehicle along the Fairfield main road.
Following the decision Friday, Mrs. Leon-Issa's attorney Chukwumeka Cameron said his client could challenge the ruling.
"Mrs Amoi Leon-Issa is to hand over the key to her phone, which she will do, while considering whether or not she should take the matter to the Court for Appeal. That decision can only be made after we review the written decision that we still await," he said.
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