The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

LATE receipt of trial transcripts delayed the appeal hearing of a man contesting his conviction and life sentence for murdering a fast food restaurant manager after seducing and robbing him.

Simeon Bain appeared in the Court of Appeal yesterday with his attorney Philip Hilton. However, the matter did not proceed due to the transcripts not being delivered to the court and defence counsel until the morning of the proceedings.

Bain’s appeal will now be heard on March 18.

On May 2, 2013, Bain was unanimously convicted of all the charges he faced, save attempted robbery, concerning the September 19, 2009, death of 21-year-old Rashad Morris.

Morris was kidnapped from the Charlotte Street branch of Burger King and taken to the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway branch, where he had been the manager.

He was ordered to open the safe. After failing to do so, he was stabbed in the restaurant’s parking lot before his throat was slashed.

Bain denied charges of murder, robbery, attempted robbery, housebreaking, and kidnapping.

Immediately after his conviction, the case’s lead prosecutor, Director of Public Prosecutions Vinette Graham-Allen, announced the Crown’s intention to seek the death penalty.

However, on July 30, Justice Indra Charles sentenced Bain to life imprisonment on the basis that the case did not meet the “worst of the worst” threshold set by the London-based Privy Council.