Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

A Supreme Court Judge on Wednesday turned down a bail application for 36-year-old St. Andrew businessman Steven Grant, and expressed concern that Grant's murder trial was not conducted in a speedy manner.

Grant, of Queen Hill, St. Andrew, is to return to the Home Circuit Court on February 2 when his trial will begin.

He is facing a retrial for the murder of 17-year-old Dunoon Technical High School student Kymani Bailey, who was shot 13 times in a car park in New Kingston on April 18, 1999. Eleven of the shots were to the back of the body.

Paula Llewellyn, Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, outlined to Mrs. Justice Norma McIntosh the various reasons why the case was not disposed of since it was sent from the Court of Appeal in March this year.

Police sick-out

One of the reasons was that the trial was aborted on October 31, following a complaint by a juror. She said the trial should have started in July this year, but was put off because of a sick-out by the police.

Miss Llewellyn said she was going to assign herself to the case to ensure that the trial commences in February.

Attorney-at-law Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, who is representing Grant, applied for bail on the ground that Grant was on bail until he was convicted in 2003 and had always honoured his bail. She said under the Bail Act, Grant was entitled to bail.

Miss Llewellyn said the Crown was opposing bail on the ground that the case against Grant was a strong one.

The judge, in refusing bail, said the prosecution was saying Grant was a flight risk. The judge said she agreed with the prosecution because, before the first trial, Grant would have had a different mindset.

Grant was convicted in February 2003 of the murder but the United Kingdom-based Privy Council quashed his conviction. The Privy Council sent back the case for the Court of Appeal to decide whether he should face another trial. The Court of Appeal ruled in March that Grant should face a retrial.