The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

SUPREME Court judge has again refused bail to pilot Donald Ferguson, ruling that the murder and drug trafficking accused presents a sweeping array of dangers, from fleeing the country and committing further offences to threatening witnesses and endangering both the public and himself.

Justice Dale Fitzpatrick said no combination of electronic monitoring, house arrest, passport restrictions, police reporting requirements or sureties could contain the risks posed by Ferguson, who is accused of executing airport employee Giovanni Rolle outside Lynden Pindling International Airport and is separately charged in connection with $15m worth of drugs recovered from a crashed aircraft.

Ferguson is also among 13 people indicted in the United States over an alleged international cocaine trafficking network that prosecutors say exploited Bahamian airports and included senior members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

“The risks remain too many and too serious,” Justice Fitzpatrick said as he dismissed Ferguson’s latest bail application yesterday.

The judge concluded that Ferguson’s experience as a professional pilot gave him an extraordinary ability to escape the jurisdiction, even if he surrendered his passport, pilot’s licence and other travel documents.

“The seriousness of these several and now international charges with related risk of significant jail time upon conviction, Mr Ferguson’s limited ties to The Bahamas and his being an experienced pilot presenting a unique facility for literal flight leaves this court satisfied that Mr Ferguson is a risk of flight and not attending Court as required if released,” he said.

The ruling delivered another setback to Ferguson, whose lawyers presented new alibi evidence placing him inside the airport terminal about ten minutes after Rolle was shot in the parking lot shortly before 6am on June 16, 2024.

Justice Fitzpatrick accepted that the affidavit represented a material change since Ferguson’s previous bail hearing and said it could provide him with an alibi if presented and believed at trial.

However, the judge said prosecutors had still produced cogent identification, opportunity and motive evidence sufficient to establish a prima facie murder case at the bail stage.

He stressed that the case was “far from a certain case”, particularly because of the possible alibi.

Neither the alleged murder weapon nor the white Nissan Note that prosecutors associate with the killing has been found. No surveillance footage has been presented showing Ferguson in connection with the shooting, despite the incident allegedly unfolding in the parking lot and terminal of the country’s principal airport, where extensive camera coverage would be expected.

A forensic report on swabs taken from Ferguson’s hands, including testing for gunshot residue, also remains outstanding.

Nonetheless, the Crown’s case includes alleged dying declarations in which Rolle identified his attacker as “DJ”, a nickname Ferguson acknowledged using during a police interview.

One witness claimed Rolle identified the shooter as “DJ, Nesha husband who shoot me”.

Ferguson’s estranged wife, Tanesha Smith, was known as Nesha and was in a relationship with Rolle at the time, according to the ruling.

Justice Fitzpatrick said Ferguson acknowledged during his police interview that he wanted to reunite with his estranged wife and knew she was involved with Rolle.

Ms Smith also gave police a statement alleging that Ferguson stalked, threatened and intimidated her over the relationship.

Ferguson was at LPIA on the morning of the murder and checked in at about 5.30am for a one-way flight to Freeport. Rolle was shot approximately 20 minutes later.

Ferguson also told police he was familiar with an internal airport entrance known as “Door M”, which pilots and other authorised personnel used to move through the airport. A police report said the door was broken and could be opened manually by anyone.

The judge accepted that the broken door widened the pool of people who could have accessed the passageway, but said it did not eliminate Ferguson’s alleged opportunity because he was at the airport when Rolle was shot.

However, Ferguson’s latest application introduced an affidavit from Roberto Thompson, who claimed he encountered and spoke with Ferguson at the top of an escalator beyond the airport’s public security screening area at about 6am.

Justice Fitzpatrick said that evidence, if presented and accepted at trial, appeared capable of providing Ferguson with an alibi.

Prosecutors argued that its strength was weakened because Ferguson did not raise the alibi during his police interview, his two previous bail hearings or in the months immediately following his January 2025 arrest. Mr Thompson’s affidavit emerged in late 2025.

The judge said the truth of the alleged alibi must ultimately be tested at trial.

Ferguson’s murder trial has now been brought forward to September 28 because his newly retained lawyer is available for an earlier date. Backup and substantive trial dates in February and July 2027 remain in place.

Justice Fitzpatrick rejected any suggestion that Ferguson had suffered an unreasonable delay, pointing out that the September trial would begin less than two years after his January 18, 2025 arrest.

The judge also found cogent evidence supporting separate Bahamian drug trafficking charges arising from an aircraft that crash-landed before two men reportedly fled into bushes.

Authorities allegedly recovered 762lb of cocaine and 25lb of marijuana from the abandoned aircraft. The drugs were valued at an estimated $15m.

An iPad linked to Ferguson was allegedly found inside the cockpit.

Ferguson faces charges of conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs with intent to supply, conspiracy to import dangerous drugs, abetment of importation and possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply.

The Voluntary Bill of Indictment in that case is expected to be served on August 20.

Ferguson’s lawyers argued that the delay in presenting the indictment reflected weaknesses in the case and threatened his right to a trial within a reasonable time.

However, prosecutors said authorities were awaiting forensic confirmation that the seized substances were cocaine and marijuana.

Justice Fitzpatrick called the country’s lack of adequate drug-testing facilities an “unfortunate state of affairs”, saying evidence regularly had to be sent overseas for analysis. However, he accepted the explanation for the delay and said there was no basis to conclude that the prosecution had abandoned or weakened its case.

The judge also weighed Ferguson’s indictment in the Southern District of New York, where he faces allegations involving cocaine trafficking and firearms.

US prosecutors announced in November 2024 that 13 people had been indicted in an alleged cocaine importation conspiracy that relied on corrupt Bahamian officials to protect shipments and provide information about US Coast Guard movements. The defendants included then-police Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis and then-Royal Bahamas Defence Force Chief Petty Officer Darrin Roker.

No extradition proceedings have yet been brought against Ferguson.

His lawyers argued that the delay suggested the US allegations lacked merit or force, but Justice Fitzpatrick rejected that argument as speculative.

The judge said the indictment remained active and that any delay could arise from the complexity of an international prosecution involving multiple defendants.

Justice Fitzpatrick also found that Ferguson presented a substantial risk of committing further offences.

Ferguson was convicted of drug-related offences in 2020 and fined $2,000, although the conviction was subsequently marked as expunged.

In February, he was found guilty of possession of dangerous drugs after police allegedly discovered seven grams of marijuana in the glove compartment of a vehicle associated with him. He received a conditional discharge and one year of probation.

The judge said the convictions and unresolved allegations created what he described as an uninterrupted account of alleged criminal activity from 2020 until Ferguson was taken into custody in January 2025.

“On that basis, the Court is satisfied that Mr Ferguson presents a substantial risk to reoffend if released on bail,” he said.

Justice Fitzpatrick also found a risk that Ferguson could interfere with Crown witnesses, citing the allegations of threats, intimidation and stalking made by Ms Smith, a potential prosecution witness.

He described the alleged airport killing as a brazen, execution-style shooting arising from the breakdown of Ferguson’s marriage and his estranged wife’s relationship with Rolle.

“The murder narrative depicts violent and emotionally driven conduct, involving the discharge of a firearm in a public setting, thereby posing a serious risk to any member of the public who might be present at the wrong place and time,” the judge said.

The court further concluded that Ferguson’s alleged participation in the dangerous drugs supply chain, coupled with the firearms allegation in the United States, presented a serious threat to public safety.

Justice Fitzpatrick also considered whether Ferguson would face danger himself if released.

Ferguson previously told the court he had arranged to live on another Bahamian island to protect himself. The judge cited the high public profile of the murder case, Ferguson’s own concerns and the prevalence of retaliatory violence in The Bahamas in finding that his safety could be threatened outside custody.

Ferguson’s lawyers also complained that conditions at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services were grave, unhealthy, inadequate and inhumane.

However, the judge said the court had received no evidence showing that the conditions had changed since Ferguson’s previous bail application ten months earlier and therefore did not treat the complaint as a new circumstance.

Justice Fitzpatrick stressed that Ferguson remains presumed innocent and that witness statements and prosecution claims are untested allegations.

However, after reviewing the murder case, local drug charges, US indictment, criminal history, flight risk and public safety concerns, the judge concluded that Ferguson was not a suitable candidate for release.

Ferguson has been held in custody since January 2025.