A Kingston man, who was tried in absentia for part of his trial, was along with a co-accused convicted of murder in the Home Circuit Court last Wednesday.

Bryan Smythe, who was on bail, had absconded for a total of six days of his four-week-old trial, before being held in the company of a wanted man in the western Jamaica parish of Westmoreland.

Following the conviction, senior prosecutor Lisa Palmer-Hamilton told the Jamaica Observer that the police officers involved are to be commended for their efforts in capturing Smythe.

Smythe and Collin Gordon, a wheelchair-bound man, were convicted by a panel of 12 jurors who deliberated for just two hours. They are to be sentenced on June 14. A third man, Machel Crossman, was acquitted.

Victims Sylvano ‘Omar’ Smith and Sean Phang, of Franklin Town in East Kingston, were hacked, beaten and shot to death on September 6, 2009 after the taxi they chartered to take them to Gem Road, off Maxfield Avenue, took the wrong turn and ended up on Latore Avenue, which runs off Waltham Park Road.

The men — including the taxi driver, who barely managed to escape with his life — were dragged from the vehicle and attacked after indicating they were heading to Gem Road.

The victims were accused of being members of the feared Rat Bat Gang which operates in large swats of depressed communities off Maxfield Avenue and Arnett Gardens.

Evidence was given that Crossman’s role was that he came out of his house with a knife that was taken from him and used to chop the taxi driver.