St James SSP to seek update into phone analysis in Gabriel King murder case
Published:Saturday | July 13, 2024 | 12:11 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
More than two years after the brutal January 13, 2022 murder of nine-year-old Gabriel King rocked St James and the wider Jamaica, the parish’s commanding officer of police Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels has promised to seek an update into the police’s analysis of the child’s mother’s phone.
Samuels made the commitment in a brief but forward-stepping statement while addressing Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, where Councillor Michael Troupe, the councillor for the Granville division, requested an update into the case’s investigation.
“I am seeking just a little update from the superintendent, where there was a murder in my space [division] about two years now, the boy whose vehicle they hijacked and they killed him. St James needs an update on that,” Troupe said in a short but pointed request.
“As it relates to an update regarding that murder, there is no update from the last time in terms of the investigation; the last thing we had heard was that the court had ordered that the phone be released. That is still being processed by our technical persons, so we have not gotten an update since then, but I will seek to get that as soon as possible; just remember that investigations take time,” Samuels replied.
Reportedly abducted
That commitment from Samuels is the latest information to be given in relation to Gabriel King’s murder, which took place after the child, who was developmentally challenged, was reportedly abducted from his mother Amoy Leon-Issa on January 13, 2022 along the Tucker main road in St James.
According to reports at the time, assailants dragged Leon-Issa from the motorcar in which the mother and child were travelling and then sped off with the vehicle, with young King still inside. The vehicle was later found along the Fairfield main road, and the child’s body was found in the back seat with the throat slashed.
The controversy around Leon-Issa’s phone is in regard to an order from the St James Parish Court on November 18, 2022 that she should surrender the device to the police to assist their investigations into her son’s murder.
Leon-Issa filed a motion in the Supreme Court through her legal team challenging the order, citing her right to privacy, but the Supreme Court upheld the order following in-chambers hearings on March 30 and April 26, 2023.
Leon-Issa subsequently handed over the access code for the phone to the police on September 29, 2023, following an order from the Supreme Court that she should grant that access by 4 p.m. that day.
There has been longstanding frustration among the public concerning the apparent lack of progress or updates into the investigation of King’s murder, with the Jamaica Constabulary Force having frequently stated in the early months of their probe that there were no new developments. There were also declarations from detectives in the case that they were being stonewalled in their investigations due to lack of cooperation from persons close to the matter.