8 NYPD hunting killers who gunned down J’can INVESTIGATORS IN New York City are still searching for two men who killed a Jamaican man outside a St Albans nightclub in Queens earlier this month. THE MURDER was caught on closed circuit television. Footage of the incident is being circulated on social media. The victimhas been identified as 23-yearold Jevaughn ‘Blingaz’ Jeminson. According to the New York Post, Jeminson, who is of a Florida address and originally from east Kingston, was chased by two gunmen, who fired more than a dozen shots combined at the intersection of Selover Road and Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, about 2 a.m. Saturday, April 8. The victim was taken to the Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre, where he died, the police said. The attackers, who were dressed in hoodies, casually left the scene after the shooting, leaving Jeminson for dead. When The Gleaner checked with the NYPD onTuesday, a spokesperson said that the killers were still at large. The police indicated that Jeminson was found with gunshot wounds to his torso. His killing is the second such incident that has shocked the Jamaican community in the Tri-State area over the Easter holidays. Last week, popular veteran music selector Ricky Trooper was left questioning God’s plan hours after his daughter was found murdered at her home in Connecticut in the United States. Brianna Destiny McKoy, the 23-year-old mother of a one-year-old boy, was found unresponsive on Thursday around 11:20 a.m. inside her condominium in Bridgeport, the police said. The Bridgeport police have since listed Derrick Francis, 41, as wanted in connection with the death of McKoy. The police say Francis is known to frequent the North End in Bridgeport and Bronx, NY, and should be considered armed and dangerous. Several members of the entertainment fraternity have publicly called for Francis to turn himself in to the authorities. Lobby seeks US intervention after American convicted of sex with minor AN AMERICAN advocacy group has sought the intervention of the United States (US) government in the case of an American citizen who was convicted in Jamaica for having sex with an underage girl. Robert Benoit was found guilty by a jury in the St James Circuit Court last month for having sex with a 12-year-old girl in December 2020, hours after he had a telephone conversation with the child’s father. “Go spend the night with him and bring back the money,” the girl’s father was quoted as telling her as she left their home with Benoit, prosecutors disclosed, citing evidence presented during the trial. But the NewYork City-based Families for Freedom (FFF) has slammed the conviction, charging that Benoit is the victim of an attempted shakedown led by the girl’s family and that the evidence used to secure his conviction was coerced by investigators. Benoit knew the girl’s family through her mother, prosecutors said. Janay Cauthen, executive director of FFF, said their assertions are among the findings of a private investigator hired by the lobby and statements made by the victim in video-recorded messages. She disclosed, during an interview with The Gleaner last Tuesday, that the findings will be shared with officials at the US State Department, which has already agreed to a meeting on April 26 in Washington, DC. “I am going to the State Department to get some intervention,” she insisted. A legal observer based in Jamaica called the evidence against Benoit “very, very poor and [the verdict] really should not have been left up to the jurors”. But Jamaica’s chief prosecutor, Paula Llewellyn, defended the prosecution, saying that the evidentiary materials presented to her office were“sufficient” to lay an indictment against Benoit for the offence of having sex with a person under 16 years old. Benoit is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5. Cauthen, who was born in Jamaica, confirmed that Benoit’s conviction will be challenged in the Court of Appeal and that the lobby is close to identifying an attorney to argue the case. She claimed, too, that the police have not been able to account for a motorcycle, an undetermined sum of cash and Benoit’s American passport, which were taken from his home at the time of his arrest. Cauthen said that a report has been made to the police oversight body, the Independent Commission of Investigations. INDECOM Senior Public Relations Officer Denyelle Anderson said three complaints have been filed on Benoit’s behalf since 2020. Jevaughn ‘Blingaz’ Jeminson. CONTRIBUTED ROBERT NESTA Morgan, the de facto information minister, has sought to assure Jamaica that the Constitutional ReformCommittee (CRC) was formed in the best interest of the society. His declaration follows concerns from some local Christians that Canadian Professor Richard Albert, who was named to the 14-member committee last month, has a distinct pro-LGBT and pro-abortion bias. The religious leaders have called for Albert, the only non-Jamaican on the committee, and who has previously worked with a number of countries in modernising their constitutions, to be removed. At a post-Cabinet press briefing last Wednesday, Morgan stated that the constitutional reform process “will not disturb such a wide range of issues”. Rather, it will focus on guiding Jamaica’s transition from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. “The issue that consumes the conversation is not a matter that is being contemplated by the Government,” he said. Further, the minister noted that the committee was representative of a wide cross section of society, including the Church. He dismissed suggestions that any one individual will have undue influence on the reform process. Jamaica’s 1864 Offences Against the Person Act explicitly makes buggery illegal. Under this same act, a woman can be imprisoned for life at hard labour for having an abortion. Anyone who aids in the abortion can also be jailed for up to three years. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling last year, Albert told KVUE news in Austin, Texas, that the decision would not necessarily prevent abortions but force women to seek unsafe means to undergo the procedure. “It is very sad. It’s a devastation for the country, for women and anyone who believes in fundamental rights and freedom,” he said. He has argued that if the US overturns its previous ruling on same-sex relationships, it would be a fundamental breach of the right to privacy for all, including homosexuals. Albert also believes that the right to privacy in sexual relationships between two persons, whether they are of the same sex or not, should be respected. Among those voicing objection to Albert’s inclusion is Bishop Dr Alvin Bailey, chairman of Jamaica CAUSE and president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance. “We are against it because he is a non-national. The Constitution is our local document, which will be sacrosanct, legal, and binding ... . I believe that no outsider should have a part to play in its construction,”Bailey told The Gleaner last week. Abortion, gay rights not being contemplated in constitutional reform–Gov’t MORE THAN 2,000 Jamaicans who travelled to Panama between 2018 and March this year were denied entry into the Central American country while 81 were deported, Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Kamina Johnson Smith has disclosed. For the same period, 143 Jamaicans were denied entry into Mexico in North America, as the two countries ramp up efforts to limit illegal migration to the southern border of the United States. Johnson Smith made the disclosure during last Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, days after CARICOM member state Belize signalled that it would introduce a new travel policy for Jamaicans, who were using that country as a transit point to get into the US. Johnson Smith said that having recognised that there are no direct flights to Mexico, Panama is the route travelled to get to both Mexico and Belize. As a result, the country has heightened its immigration surveillance, the minister said, which is now affecting both travellers with lawful and unlawful intent. “We want you to keep this in mind because as much as we try to build relationships and keep strong friendships and lines of communication with our partner countries, these types of decisions can impact lawful travel,” Johnson Smith said. The US, Panama and Colombia announced on Tuesday that they will launch a 60-day campaign aimed at halting illegal migration through the treacherous Darien Gap, where the flow of migrants has multiplied this year. The Darien Gap is the geographic region which connects South and North America through Central America. Nearly 90,000 migrants travelled through the dense, lawless jungle in just the first three months of this year. “We are trying to be proactive and bring to the attention of Jamaicans that this is not a good decision to take. It is extremely risky for you personally, but it also affects the reputation of our passports,” said Johnson Smith. Last year, the Mexican government toughened immigration processes in permitting landing to Jamaicans amid growing concerns over an illegal “human-smuggling”corridor to the US. Hundreds of J’cans denied entry into Mexico, Panama since 2018 Professor Richard Albert, International Constitutional Law Expert. FILE Johnson Smith [ NEWS BRIEFS ] THE WEEKLY GLEANER | APRIL 17 - MAY 23, 2023 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS
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