By Latrishka Thomas
The September assizes will now include the case of a prisoner who has been charged with the attempted murder of a fellow inmate who became paralysed after the attack.
Nekemwa Gordon is accused of stabbing Conroy Jones in the head and neck with a pair of scissors during an incident inside Her Majesty’s Prison on October 30 2020.
Jones was said to have been washing clothes on the compound when another prisoner attacked him during an alleged dispute over access to water.
The injury reportedly affected his spinal cord to the extent that he has no mobility on the left side of his body.
The defendant was told yesterday in the St John’s Magistrates’ Court that he will have to face a High Court judge sometime after September when his case is called.
When the inmate appeared before Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh in early June, his committal was adjourned because he claimed that the investigation was “going very biased”.
He told the Chief Magistrate that he also sustained injuries for which he only received treatment four days after.
Gordon said his hand was broken so severely that it was placed in a cast for three months.
The magistrate halted the proceedings to ascertain if the man’s claim was true, but the investigator claimed that he was unaware.
He was then ordered to investigate the matter and the committal proceedings were postponed until yesterday.
Yesterday, the prosecution indicated that they obtained a medical form from the hospital indicating that the defendant had received some form of injury.
That and a few other items were admitted into evidence and will therefore be used against Gordon if he pleads not guilty in the High Court.
The alleged victim is a Jamaican national who has been incarcerated at the penal institution for about 10 years and is due to be released in 2025.