Taylor v. The Queen (Jamaica)

Taylor v. The Queen (Jamaica) [2006] UKPC 12 (13 March 2006)

Privy Council Appeal No 28 of 2005

Anthony Taylor Appellant

v.

The Queen Respondent

FROM

THE COURT OF APPEAL OF

JAMAICA

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JUDGMENT OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL

COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL

Delivered the 13th March 2006

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Present at the hearing:-

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry

Lord Woolf

Lord Hutton

Lord Carswell

Lord Mance

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[Delivered by Lord Carswell]

The appellant Anthony Taylor was tried along with Richard Solomon in the St James Circuit Court in Montego Bay by Panton J and a jury between 21 September and 5 October 1998. The defendants were jointly charged with the murder of Kevin Cummings on a date unknown between 1 and 4 April 1997. At the conclusion of the trial the jury acquitted Solomon but convicted the appellant of murder. The trial judge sentenced him to imprisonment for life with hard labour, with a minimum of 25 years to be served before he would become eligible for parole. He applied for leave to appeal against conviction and sentence. The Court of Appeal (Forte P, Harrison and Langrin JJA) on 19 November 2001 refused leave to appeal against conviction but allowed the appeal against sentence, varying it by ordering that the minimum term be reduced from 25 to 23 years. The court gave its reasons for this decision in a written judgment given on 11 March 2002. On 17 November 2004 the Board granted the appellant special leave to appeal as a poor person against his conviction.

The deceased man Kevin Cummings was a taxi driver in Montego Bay. He was last seen alive at 1.45 pm on 1 April 1997 at a taxi stand in St James. He was due to pick up a neighbour that evening between 10.30 and 10.45, but did not show up. His body was found on 4 April 1997 lying beside his taxi at Spring Farm, an apparently unfrequented spot about 15 or 20 minutes' drive from the Bay West Plaza shopping centre in Montego Bay. It was decomposed, but there was no firm evidence about the time of death. The cause of death was a bullet wound to the head; the entrance wound was in the forehead and there was no exit wound. A bullet fragment was found in the brain matter, which was the subject of forensic examination.

On 2 April 1997 the appellant told two separate people that the deceased had arrived at Bay West Plaza the previous day, but that he had told him that the projected trip was cancelled, whereupon the deceased had driven off. That same day 2 April he arranged with his wife's aunt Carol Handy to stay overnight…

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