Stephanie Christie, otherwise called “Mumma”, the sole female accused in the ranks of the Klansman gang and a so-called pastor, has been found guilty of being a member of the notorious criminal organisation.

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes handed down the verdict on Wednesday afternoon.

Christie, said to be a top-tier member of the St Catherine-based gang, in a fervently delivered unsworn statement had described herself as a “businesswoman and entrepreneur” who is “known by many as a people person”.

She had claimed that her only MO was caring for the elderly and the young people by getting them into schools. She told the court that she also spearheaded community sports days and a major get-together which was so recognised it attracted sponsorship from several big-name companies.

However, Witness Number Two, a former gang member turned state witness, had asserted that Christie was the link between the police force and the gang and was the one to source legal representation whenever a gang member ran afoul of the law. Christie, it was said, bankrolled legal fees from extortion monies.

The trial judge on Wednesday, in referring to recorded conversations which were entered into evidence, featuring Christie in conversation with the witness where she spoke of a corrupt cop who fed her with information, said it was consistent with the evidence of a police witness who said Christie had tried to bribe him.

He said the evidence in the case showed “cumulatively her role and function within the criminal organisation”.

Christie, in maintaining her innocence, had said “I am not part of any gang, I am a people person, I jump around and help everybody.”

She added that she knew gang leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan because she “grew up“ with him in the Jones Avenue section of Spanish Town and attended the same high school, but emphasised that she was employed to a stationery store and a cereal making company in the time before her arrest.

Christie had also denied knowing Witness Number One who had testified that she was a high-ranking member of the gang for longer than seven months. She went on further to point out that she only knew “about six of them in the gang”, arguing vociferously that if there was indeed a criminal organisation and if she ranked as highly in the structure, as the witness said, she would have known more of the members.

“I never go nowhere to commit no crime, that’s it Milord,” she told the court stridently at the time.

– Alicia Dunkley-Willis