ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – Thirty-nine-year-old police constable Sheldon James and Patricia Sinclair, 40, appeared in the Santa Cruz Resident Magistrate’s Court Thursday charged with murder in connection with the death – allegedly by poisoning – of teacher, Kerry-Ann Powell in November.

The two, who were charged following a recent ruling by the Director of Public Prosecution, were offered bail and are to return to Court on April 14.

James was offered bail in the sum of J$1 million with surety and Sinclair J$500,000 with surety.

As a condition of their bail they are to surrender their travel documents and report to the Black River police on Mondays and Saturdays.

Sinclair is also before the Court on a charge of housebreaking and assault occasioning bodily harm in connection with the November 19 incident which left 30-year-old Powell dead and her boyfriend hospitalised for two days. The boyfriend is Sinclair’s estranged husband.

Sinclair and James are accused of breaking into a house at Horizon Park in Santa Cruz, and of attacking Powell and her boyfriend with a poisonous substance. Powell’s two children who were in the house at the time were not harmed.

Both were initially taken into custody after being named in the incident. James was subsequently released while Sinclair was held on the housebreaking and assault charges.

On Thursday, attorneys representing the two accused, Velma Hylton, QC for Sinclair and Thomas Levene for James, both requested copies of all the statements in the case inclusive of the postmortem and toxicology reports.

The court was told that the case file is incomplete, as the doctor who performed the postmortem is away in India. The doctor is expected to be back in the island in March and it was not certain when the toxicology report will be ready, the court was told.