A year ago today Jerrie Jones was murdered – and the family is marking the sombre anniversary with bad news. This morning in court the charges against the man police say killed him were dropped. The Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lynn Branker Taitt sent a note to the Magistrate instructing the charges be dropped against Lloyd Faber.
The DPP says the only evidence against Faber was a witness statement. And that witness told police he only the saw the shooter for two seconds and couldn’t identify him. Still police went ahead and the arresting officer was in fact, according to our reports, directed to charge Lloyd Faber, despite the lack of evidence. We note that though Lloyd Faber is clear of the murder charge – he still was not free to go home since he is serving a 5 year prison sentence for a robbery conviction.
Lloyd Faber is the second accused killer to walk free this week. Joseph Panting was released on Wednesday after being held a full year for allegedly killing Kirk Ortega. DPP Branker Taitt says that in both cases, and in many others still on her desk, there is a pattern of police making arrests with insufficient - and in some cases – no evidence against suspects. And she is not alone in that position. New Commander of Eastern Division David Henderson stunned everyone when characterized those cases as statistical arrests at a press conference in July.
Viewers may recall that both those murder cases that were thrown out this week occurred in a rash of killings which followed the murder of Junie Balls on August 28, 2007. And as the DPP said, there are other files supported by questionable evidence – and unless the fairy godmother comes up with some proof for police, those too will have to be thrown out.
The DPP says she hopes to discuss the way forward with Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby who returns from vacation on Monday.
