KINGSTON, Jamaica — The trial of six alleged members of the Westmoreland-based King Valley Gang has been halted for 21 days, as one of the accused is ill.

The bench trial began on January 14 with nine men in the dock, and heard several days of testimony from the star prosecution witness via live video link from an undisclosed location.

The witness told the court that gang members were involved in the deadly lottery scamming scheme, committed murders and rapes in the course of robberies, and were also murderers for hire.

Three of the accused have since been freed, as the evidence against them collapsed. Those individuals, along with the remaining six — Carlington Godfrey, alias Tommy; Rannaldo McKennis, otherwise known as Ratty; Derval Williams, also called Lukie; Christon Grant, alias Ecoy; Lindell Powell, also called Lazarus; and Copeland Sankey, also known as Tupac — had been charged in an indictment containing 11 counts on suspicion of being part of a criminal organisation, providing benefits to a criminal organisation, and conspiring to commit murder, rape and robbery with aggravation from as early as 2013.

Alicia Dunkley-Willis