The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A TEENAGER, one of three individuals accused of murdering Queen’s College elementary teacher Joyelle McIntosh in 2015, confessed to committing the crime during his initial record of interview with police, Supreme Court jurors heard yesterday.

Police Detective Sergeant Kendra Wallace, taking the witness stand before Justice Bernard Turner, said the teenager admitted to shooting the fourth-grade teacher when interviewed on November 20, 2015 at the Central Detective Unit.

Det Sgt Wallace said the teenager, who cannot be named because he was charged as a minor, made his initial confession to a social services employee in the presence of herself and the interviewing officer after alerting the officers that he needed to “get something off his chest”.

The social services employee was contacted and requested to be present in the interview with the teenager after several failed attempts to contact the accused’s mother, Det Sgt Wallace said. A pastor was also present during the initial confession, she said.

Det Sgt Wallace said the teenager, in speaking with the social services employee in the presence of both herself and the interviewing officer, said he felt bad about what he did and only did it because he wanted to steal the car McIntosh was driving.

The witness said the teenager again confessed to committing the crime at the start of the actual record of interview, but denied participating in the interview process on the advice of his attorney.

Additionally, Det Sgt Wallace said the teenager’s co-accused, Johnny Mackey aka “Eagle Eye” and Armando Sergeant, in their records of interview on November 18, told officers the teenager was the one who shot McIntosh.

Det Sgt Wallace said Mackey, who was the individual lying in the middle of Parkgate Road on the night in question, thus causing McIntosh to swerve to avoid hitting him, admitted he did so but said it was because he caught a “cramp.”

Meanwhile, Sergeant, she said, admitted to having knowledge of the offence but denied shooting the deceased. He said he, Mackey and the teenager were on Parkgate Road when they saw a woman driving a silver vehicle headed east towards Village Road.

According to Det Sgt Wallace, Sergeant said he saw when Mackey dropped to the ground and said he knew it would be a robbery. As the car approached, he said the teenager approached and subsequently shot the deceased.

Similar information was elicited by Sergeant while accompanying the witness, the interviewing officer, and another officer responsible for recording the whole ordeal on a drive from the Wulff Road Police Station onto Kemp Road and then onto Parkgate Road on November 19, 2015.

However, the teenager’s attorney questioned if Det Sgt Wallace took notes of her client’s confession. The officer said she did not. When asked by Sonia Timothy why her client’s confession was not produced in writing, the senior officer replied: “I cannot speak to that, ma’am.”

She further stated she could not speak to why the interviewing officer did not take notes of the confession.

Ms Timothy also charged that her client initially denied the allegations against him, and after doing so, was taken to a separate section of the CDU complex, slapped by Det Sgt Wallace, and bagged multiple times by the interviewing officer with another officer present.

After this and other acts of police brutality, Ms Timothy submitted to Det Sgt Wallace that her client was taken back to the interviewing room to continue the interview process.

The senior officer denied all of Ms Timothy’s assertions.

The trial continues.

Yesterday’s proceedings are the latest in the murder trial of the fourth-grade teacher on November 11, 2015.

It is alleged the teenager, who was 17 at the time of the incident, along with Mackey of Bonaby Alley and Sergeant of Kemp Road, 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 have denied the allegations.

Viola Barnett and Akeyra Saunders represent the Crown. David Cash and Dorsey McPhee are the other two defense attorneys on record, representing Sergeant and Mackey, respectively.