By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A FORMER fugitive has been granted an extension by the Court of Appeal to serve notice against his conviction for a murder that occurred nearly a decade ago.
Jason Marshall, 33, said his right to appeal was not made clear in July when he was sentenced to 48 years in prison for the 2005 shooting death of Fabian Joffer.
Garvin Gaskin, acting director of public prosecutions and Crown respondent, said he had no objection to the extension being granted given the nature of the offence.
Justices Stanley John, Abdulai Conteh and Neville Adderley granted the application and adjourned the matter to November 18 for a status hearing regarding the availability of the transcripts which the court had yet to receive.
A jury, in April of this year, accepted the prosecution’s case that Marshall shot Joffer following an argument at a party in Yellow Elder Gardens.
Witnesses claimed that Marshall returned with a 9mm pistol and shot Joffer.
Prosecutors said that Marshall’s flight from the Bahamas to the United States by illegal means was evidence of his guilt.
Marshall was deported from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in February 2011, some five months after being arrested in Philadelphia on an assault charge that stemmed from a fight with another man.
Marshall maintained that he was a victim of mistaken identity.
His lawyer, Ian Cargill, noted at trial that investigators had failed to establish which of the three men named Jason at the party was responsible for the shooting because they did not hold an identification parade.
Mr Cargill was not present at yesterday’s proceedings.
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