The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

TWO men allegedly involved in the infamous Fox Hill prison break nearly a decade ago appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday for a case management hearing.

Corey Hepburn and Barry Parcoi appeared before Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs for an update in their case concerning the January 17, 2006, death of 13-year prison veteran, Corporal Dion Bowles during their escape.

The men, with Forrester Bowe, were found by the coroner in May 2006 to be jointly responsible for the killing.

However, their trial was stayed in 2010 pending the outcome of Bowe’s appeal against a judge’s decision in his constitutional motion made at the time.

In yesterday’s proceedings, prosecutor Viola Barnett informed Senior Justice Isaacs that she was unaware of a ruling being made by the appellate court in that matter.

Monique Gomez and Jennifer Mangra, respective lawyers for Hepburn and Parcoi, also indicated the same to the judge.

Senior Justice Isaacs said the trial was still set for April 20 pending the decision. However, he set a status hearing for April 9.

Barnett further informed the court that Bowe, one of the three accused in the matter, had died since the September 2013 fixture hearing and indicated a death certificate will be forthcoming.

Hepburn and Parcoi face charges of murder, causing grievous harm and escaping lawful custody.

It is alleged that they intentionally, and by means of unlawful harm, caused the death of Corporal Bowles. It is also claimed that they injured officers Kenneth Sweeting and David Armbrister before their escape from the Department of Correctional Services, formerly Her Majesty’s Prisons.

Hepburn is on $30,000 bail while Parcoi remains behind bars in connection with another matter.

Bowe, meanwhile, was found dead in his prison cell around 7am on October 10, 2014.

Bowe, prior to the alleged incident, was convicted of killing 20-year-old Dion Patrick Roach in Grand Bahama when the Freeport Supreme Court determined that he had shot Mr Roach at an apartment complex on October 23, 1992.

He was sentenced to death in 1998 and his attempts at appealing his conviction were dismissed by the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council.

However, he won a landmark case when he challenged the court’s mandatory death penalty for convicted murderers in 2002 after the Privy Council determined that automatic capital punishment for murder was a breach of international human rights.

He was eventually re-sentenced to life imprisonment.