The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

SUPREME Court jurors have heard how the teenage son of former Queen’s College elementary teacher Joyelle McIntosh identified one of three men accused of murdering his mother as the individual lying in the middle of the road the family was travelling on the night she was shot and killed.

McIntosh’s 15-year-old son, who recently took the witness stand before Justice Bernard Turner, said Johnny Mackey was the individual he saw lying on his back on Parkgate Road. He told the court his mother had to swerve to avoid hitting Mackey with her car just moments before her death on November 11, 2015.

The son, whose name has been withheld, identified Mackey, aka “Eagle Eye,” as that individual in an identification parade at the Central Detective Unit (CDU) on November 22, 2015.

According to the boy’s testimony in court last week, around 8pm on the day in question, he and his mother were driving to pick up a book from one of her friends, who is also a teacher, for a project he had for the next day.

He said while they were on Parkgate Road, he saw “this man laying in the road when we were driving.” He said he told his mother he noticed someone lying in the road, but she ignored it and continued to drive. After he repeated his statement, his mother said, “I am not into this tonight.”

The son said the man lying in the road then sat up, and his mother swerved to avoid hitting him. Had they not done so, he said, they “would have probably rolled over him.”

After passing him, he said he turned around to see if the individual was still in the road, but he was not.

McIntosh’s son said they continued driving “for maybe two more seconds” before he heard “glass” breaking. The driver’s side window was shattered, and he saw his mother “immediately” hold her neck.

“And I looked at her, she began to spit blood,” he testified. “And I realised she had probably been shot.”

He said he told his mother to drive to the hospital, but she continued to drive forward.

“I screamed, ‘drive to the hospital, drive to the hospital,’” he told the court. “And she put up her hand, and she said ‘I love God. I love God.’ I continued to tell her ‘drive to the hospital’ and then her head gave way and hit the wheel, and then we hit a wall.”

The teen said he subsequently jumped out of the car and ran, with the intention of going to his grandmother’s house nearby.

He said days later on November 22, around 1.10pm, he went to CDU and was taken into a room where he viewed an identification parade. He said when asked by the officer if there was anyone in the line-up that resembled the man he saw lying in the road, he pointed to number three, a number held by Mackey.

However, Dorsey McPhee, Mackey’s attorney, questioned the boy’s description of the person he saw in the road, who had been described as having “brown skin” and an “unkempt beard.” By “unkempt,” McIntosh’s son said he meant it “was not shaved. It wasn’t lined up. It was just in patches around his face.”

Mr McPhee further questioned there being no mention of facial hair in the boy’s initial statement to police, in reference to the description of the assailant seen lying in the road.

When he testified yesterday, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Will Hart, attached to CDU, said on November 22, 2015, after receiving certain information from another senior officer, he spoke with Mackey concerning his intentions to have him participate in an identification parade.

ASP Hart said he gave Mackey a form outlining the procedure for the identification parade, which he said Mackey appeared to have read and subsequently signed. Afterwards, ASP Hart said he took Mackey to the identification room, and showed him eight people with similar characteristics.

Mackey opted to take up position number three, ASP Hart said.

He said he went into the other side of the identification room, and McIntosh’s son was escorted in by Corporal Coakley. ASP Hart said he spoke with the victim’s son, and informed him the person he saw lying in the road weeks prior may or may not have been in the line-up.

However, after the son viewed the line-up, he identified number three as the individual he saw in the road. ASP Hart said the parade was subsequently dismissed, Mackey was informed he was identified and subsequently cautioned.

The trial continues today.

Yesterday’s proceedings are the latest in the murder trial of two men and a teenager accused of murdering the former fourth grade teacher.

It is alleged the teenager, who was 17 at the time of the incident, along with Armando Sergeant of Kemp Road and Mackey of Bonaby Alley, attempted to rob McIntosh at gunpoint of her 2009 silver coloured Toyota Corolla worth $6,000.

It is alleged that during the failed carjacking, the victim was shot multiple times in her head and body. She later crashed into a wall at the intersection of Parkgate and Village Roads.

All three accused have denied the allegations.

Viola Barnett and Akeyra Saunders represent the Crown. Sonia Timothy represents the teenager, while David Cash represents Sergeant.