Appeal court orders murder retrial of former university student

A new trial has been ordered for 26-year-old former university student Jason Collins because the jury did not retire for the required time specified by law to return a majority verdict in the murder case against him.

The Court of Appeal yesterday set aside the conviction and ordered a new trial and directed that the case be mentioned in the St James Circuit Court on July 9.

Collins, who was represented by attorneys-at-law Bert Samuels and Michael Hemmings, was convicted in April 2015 of the murder of Derrick Smith.

Smith was fatally shot in St James after he and Collins exited from a taxi in which they were passengers.

Collins admitted to being in the vicinity of the shooting but denied being involved.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 18 years before being eligible for parole.

Collins had filed several grounds of appeal seeking to have his conviction overturned.

The court agreed with Collins' lawyers that the jurors had retired for less than two hours and were therefore not given sufficient time to consider the verdict as required by law.

The law states that after a lapse of two hours from the retirement of a jury, a majority verdict of not less than nine to three may be accepted.

The jury had retired for one hour and 12 minutes before returning the majority verdict of nine to three in Collins' case.

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