The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN challenging his conviction and 54-year-prison sentence for a nightclub murder will have his appeal heard in January 2014, even though the appeal was filed more than a year after he was sentenced.

In the Court of Appeal yesterday, Francis Toussaint, 29, appeared before Justices Christopher Blackman, Stanley John and Abdulai Conteh along with his attorney Gregory Hilton, seeking to be granted an extension to have his appeal heard.

Though the judges chided the attorney for not filing the appeal in time and failing to provide an affidavit explaining the cause for the delay, the judges set down January 28, 2014 for a substantive hearing.

Justice Blackman advised the attorney to have his submissions filed to the court “well in advance of that date”, which the attorney said he would do.

On March 29, 2012, Toussaint was convicted of the January 30, 2005 murder of Phillip Moss.

Moss was stabbed outside Da Bing nightclub during the early morning hours after being followed out of the club by a group of men, including Toussaint.

Justice Roy Jones, on May 21, 2012, sentenced Toussaint to 55 years in prison for murder.

However, the judge subtracted the 12 months the convict had served on remand before being released on bail in 2006, and Toussaint ended up with a punishment of 54 years at Her Majesty’s Prison effective from the date of his conviction.