A case of gun, phone calls, two deaths, deception, missing head and thorough police work
After a near five-week trial, former police constable Jeffery Peart and his sister, Roxanne Peart, were last week found guilty of the 2012 murder of 47-year-old taxi operator, Delroy Frame of Logwood in Hanover. They were convicted in the St Ann Circuit Court on Wednesday, November 19, after a 12-member jury returned the unanimous guilty verdict against the siblings. The 26-year-old cop and his sister were arrested after the headless body of the taxi operator, Delroy Frame, was discovered in Wild Cane District, near Cave Valley, St. Ann, on Saturday, May 19, 2012.
Frame’s head has still not been found. The taxi operator was a witness/complainant in a corruption case against the policeman in the court in Hanover. In May this year, the Hanover RM he was convicted and sentenced to 21 months in prison in relation to that matter. At the time, Peart was in custody over the murder charge.The trial of the ex cop and his sister dominated this sitting of the St Ann Circuit. The case had been set as a priority for this Circuit and commenced on October 22 although there were serious challenges getting people to be empanelled as jurors. The trial was also interrupted for two days because a juror fell ill.
Allegations against the siblings are that they were involved in a plot to murder the taxi operator and that the sister was responsibility for luring the unsuspecting taxi operator from Westmoreland to Bohemia in St. Ann where he was beheaded. The siblings are originally from Bohemia.
25 WITNESSES
During the course of the trial, the crown called over 25 witnesses including relatives of the deceased taxi operator, forensic and ballistic experts, medical doctor, telephone analyst and police witnesses. The two accused gave unsworn statement from the dock where they both denied the crime. They each called a member of their community to provide character reference. Jeffery Peart was represented by Lambert Johnson while Roxanne Peart was presented by Herbert McKenzie. According to the prosecution’s evidence, Frame was a complainant in a case instituted by the Anti-Corruption Branch against Constable Peart, who sought to solicit $30,000 from him following a traffic accident between Frame’s car and that belonging to the cop.
PURCHASED FIREARM
Subsequently, a sting operation was set up and the policeman was seen collecting the balance of $20,000 from Frame, resulting in his arrest in April 2012. After the cop was arrested, he was placed on suspension from the police force in April 2012. Within that same month he purchased a licenced firearm. On Saturday, May 19, 2012 at approximately 9:40 p.m. the St Ann Police received reports of a car that was on fire in the White Sand area, in the south of the parish. Checks were made and the burnt chassis of a station wagon motorcar was discovered. It was later revealed the car belonged to a taxi driver by the name of Delroy Frame of Logwood District in Hanover.
Frame’s headless body was found approximately one (1) mile away, along with three spent shells. The police immediately commenced their investigations and charges were later laid against the siblings. They were both arrested in Westmoreland where they resided at the time. The prosecution led evidence through call data records to show that Roxanne Peart began calling Frame from May 17-19, 2012 and was instrumental in luring him to Bohemia, In St. Ann where his headless body was found. They also showed that both accused persons were in the cell tower coverage area of Bohemia where the body was discovered on May 19.
The Crown further led evidence through DNA analysis of the blood found at the crime scene and in the trunk of the accused Jeffery Peart girlfriend’s car, and mouth swabs from the parents of the Frame, revealed that there was a 99.999% chance of linking the headless body to the parents of Frame. A statement from One of Frames’ sisters who identified his body at the post mortem and who gave a statement to police was accepted into evidence, despite objection from the defence. That sister now resides overseas.
COP’S GIRLFRIEND DEAD
The crown also relied heavily on the written statement of Jeffery Peart’s girlfriend, Kadena Jarrett. Shortly after she gave police the statement in which she said Jeffery Peart had borrowed her car to travel to Manchester on May 19, to visit relatives, she was found dead inside a cane field with a gunshot wounds and the throat slashed. She had said in her statement that blood was found in the trunk of the car. In the statement, the woman also said Peart’s sister accompanied him the night Jeffery came to return the car. Although Jarrett took the car to be cleaned, human blood which connected to the deceased Frame through DNA analysis was found in the trunk of the car. The ballistic analysis of spent shells found near the headless body showed that they matched the private firearm of Peart. The prosecution also relied on an eyewitness who saw Jeffery Peart in the Wild Cane area about an hour before the body was found. The also relied on the times recorded in his girlfriend’s statement which placed him in the area as well as call data record which showed he made or received calls at certain times and that those calls were registered on the Bohemia cell tower.
Call data records also showed communication between the siblings on May 19 and their movements, based on calls made from Westmoreland to St. Ann and again from St. Ann to Westmoreland.
The case against the siblings was based primarily on circumstantial evidence and joint enterprise.
A post mortem report also revealed that there were three attempts to cut Frames’ throat and that he was dead before his head was finally severed. The defence, throughout the trial, challenged several areas of the prosecution’s case including the matter in which it was investigated and also the call data records. Roxanne Peart’s lawyer vehemently challenged a phone number the prosecution said was assigned to her and which was taken from a job application form. A manager from the resort where she had put in an application did not point her out in court. No voice recordings were played in the trail. The defence also challenged the statement written by the ex cop’s lover, Jarrett and said the woman was not a credible witness. Justice Courtney Daye presided over the trial. The siblings are to be sentenced on December 12.
