The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

THREE police officers accused of killing Azario Major will be tried by a judge alone in September, more than three years after a Coroner’s Court jury found that the 31-year-old was unlawfully killed.

Justice Guillimina Archer-Minns told Sergeant 2825 Antonio Sweeting, Sergeant 3039 Jamal Johnson and Sergeant 3726 Deangelo Rolle yesterday that their manslaughter trial will begin on September 14.

The trial had been scheduled to begin last week.

Major was shot and killed in his car outside a bar on Fire Trail Road on December 26, 2021.

The case has drawn sustained scrutiny from Major’s relatives, who have repeatedly complained about delays and said they are still seeking justice years after his death.

The officers’ attorney, Keevon Maynard, said a judge-alone trial would be fairer to his clients because it would focus on the law and facts without external influence.

His position follows earlier efforts to challenge the Coroner’s Court process, when the officers argued that intense publicity surrounding the inquest prejudiced them and may have affected the jury’s homicide by manslaughter finding.

In a March 2024 ruling, Justice Franklyn Williams declined to quash the Coroner’s Court verdict, though he noted that publicity surrounding Major’s death included social media posts, commentary, interviews, a website and a podcast, with several people repeatedly calling for the officers to be indicted.

The judge said the finding may have been influenced by that publicity, but ruled that the issue was not properly before him in that application.

The officers had also complained that the Coroner’s Court failed to properly deal with a constitutional application they filed during the inquest. Justice Williams rejected their bid to set aside the verdict, finding that the officers had not exhausted other remedies.