MANCHESTER, Jamaica— The verdict in one of the country’s most watched court cases — the $400 million Manchester Municipal Corporation fraud trial —  is scheduled to be delivered electronically on Friday, in keeping with physical distancing measures, occasioned by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

OBSERVER ONLINE has been informed that senior parish court judge Ann Marie Grainger, who has been hearing evidence since the high-profile trial began last June, will stream her summation and verdict live from one of three courtrooms at the James Warehouse Plaza Mandeville town centre.

This location has been used as a court venue since a mysterious pre-dawn fire, damaged the Mandeville courthouse last November.

The seven defendants in the matter, who are expected to know their fate by Friday, are three former employees of the municipal corporation, the deputy superintendent in charge of road and works, Sanja Elliott, the acting chief executive officer, David Harris and temporary works overseer Kendale Roberts. The others are Elliott’s wife, Tashagaye and his mother Myrtle Elliott, construction worker Dwyane Sibblies and former bank employee, Radcliffe McLean.

The Crown is alleging that Sanja Elliott was the mastermind behind an elaborate scheme that used the municipal’s invoices, vouchers and cheques to unlawfully “funnel” hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds out of the corporation in “arbitrary amounts” over a three year period between 2013-2016. His co-defendants it is alleged, were part of the purported conspiracy.

Jonathan Morrison