By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A 40-year-old woman accused of killing her one-year-old daughter by setting her on fire last year will have her mental fitness to stand trial tested by a Supreme Court jury next month.
Justice Bernard Turner said Philipa Marshall will return to court on July 16, at which time a jury will be empaneled to determine her mental fitness to plead in the death of Philicia Marshall.
In April, Marshall was charged with manslaughter, accused of causing her infant daughter’s death by unlawful harm on February 14, 2017.
The charge has since been upgraded to murder.
Prosecutors alleged that the Kemp Road resident doused her child with gasoline and set her on fire at her Faith Gardens home after hearing voices.
The child died in February this year having been cared for at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Prior to her initial arraignment before Magistrate Samuel McKinney, Marshall had spent the previous 12 weeks at the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC) for mental health issues.
She is now listed as an SRC outpatient and is currently on medication.
Marshall’s attorney Bjorn Ferguson has submitted that the Crown, which is in possession of a psychiatrist’s report of his client stating that she was mentally unstable at the time she allegedly committed the offence, can exercise its discretion on whether it should proceed against Marshall.
Referring to Section 92 of the Penal Code as well as section 155 of the Criminal Procedure Code to substantiate his submissions, Mr Ferguson claimed that his client’s case would be an appropriate one for the issuance of a nolle prosequi (no case to answer).
Last month, Acting Chief Justice Stephen Isaacs granted Marshall $15,000 bail with two sureties before her trial.
As a part of her bail conditions, Marshall must live with her sister-in-law in the interim. The Kemp Road resident is to also have supervised visits with her two other children.
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