MONTEGO BAY, St James — As the police led Gregory Roberts away in handcuffs after he was found guilty of the murder of 15-year-old Shineka Gray, he cast a furtive glance at the teenager’s weeping relatives, as if he wanted to say something.

He had looked back at them earlier during their tearful outburst when the verdict was announced. It took the seven-member jury a mere 90 minutes of deliberation to convict Roberts. He will be sentenced on March 7.

Outside the St James Parish Court on Wednesday the teen’s aunt, Nickeda Gray, said the jury got it right and their verdict may save other lives.

“I think they made the necessary decision of putting away Gregory. Gregory does not need to be on the road; otherwise we would have similar occurrences. He came and created a show in the courtroom. He tried to take over the case, and I sat there and watched as they put together their case and tried to put in some things that weren’t relevant, but today justice prevailed… It is the best decision the jury could have made. We are totally satisfied,” said the grieving aunt.

She wants the maximum sentence possible to be handed out to the man who has caused her family so much pain.

“I am praying for the maximum of anything, because he sat there and had a chance to say what it was, and he refused. Maximum of anything — that is what Gregory deserves,” she added.

The relatives took comfort in the fact that Shineka’s killer has been convicted ahead of the seven-year anniversary of her death, January 29. A memorial is being planned.

“We were hoping that this memorial would be a joyful one,” Nickeda Gray told the Jamaica Observer.

“We have been fighting this for seven years… it has been seven weeks that we are [attending court], and we are in the seventh year [since Shineka’s death]. I know we normally have 12 jurors, but there were seven, and I knew that [the verdict] would be this week because the memorial is approaching… I am tired, I am weary, but even though I am crying, I am joyful,” she added.

The jury’s verdict came on the same day that Supreme Court justice, Judge Bertram Morrison completed his four-day summation of the case. He sent them off to deliberate about 11:05 am and they were back with a guilty verdict by 12:35 pm.

Throughout the two-month-long trial the jury was told by witnesses how the teenager begged for her life as she was being stabbed to death by Roberts, who instructed his co-accused Mario Morrison to use his phone to record the horrific attack. Morrison, who was on bail for another murder, committed with a knife, at the time of Shineka’s death, in September 2022 pleaded guilty to the 10th grader’s murder after a deal with the prosecution. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole unless he has served 15 years. He was a key witness in the case against Roberts, telling the court, on December 4, his version of Shineka’s last moments.

“He passed the phone to me, saying, ‘Dog, video this for me,’… And I’m videoing now; he had the knife and started to stab her… She started crying and bawling, even saying, ‘Lord, this is what You going to do to Your daughter?’ ” Mario Morrison testified.

He also claimed that both he and Roberts had sex with the girl, who did not resist, at the scene where she was later killed.

In his testimony on December 8, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Wayne Josephs, who was in charge of criminal investigations in St James at the time of Shineka’s murder, told the St James Circuit Court that Roberts claimed he left the scene with the girl alive — in convicted co-defendant Mario Morrison’s company — and returned to find her dead.

“He and the girl had sex… I don’t know if it’s afraid the girl is afraid, but there was no wrestling with the sex… The girl and I did not have any sex at all… When we were there he pulled the girl into the bushes, and it’s not one time it happened… I then walked up the road and when I returned I see pure blood… I was not there when the girl died… I then said to him, ‘Is those things you going on with?’ And he told me that the girl dissed him,” SSP Josephs said as he read aloud notes the investigating officer took while Roberts was speaking.

Roberts’s comments were made while at Barnett Street Police Station on February 6, 2017 without a lawyer or a justice of the peace present. The police testified that he was without legal representation at the time and he declined when asked if he wished to have a JP present.

However, in a brief stint on the stand on January 11 of this year, Roberts — who operated a taxi — claimed that he was never at the scene of Shineka’s death. He said Mario Morrison requested his services and when he went to make the pick up, three people were present — Mario Morrison, a man, and a lady. He said when he indicated to Mario Morrison that he was expecting him to be alone, the man replied that his “friend and his girlfriend are travelling with me”.

Roberts said he was paid $2,000 to take the trio to Granville, a community which neighbours Irwin where Shineka’s body was found. He said he dropped them off across from a gas station and told them that they could call him when they were ready to leave from that location.

“I left right there and I went to my babymother in Mount Salem, and from my babymother I went to [ex-girlfriend’s mother’s] house, and from [her] house to [inaudible]; that’s it,” stated Roberts.

DNA results from a condom and hair found at the murder scene were inconclusive in placing Roberts there but confirmed his co-accused Morrison’s presence. Analysis of cell tower data placed both men at the scene.

Shineka was found dead three days after being reported missing. She was last seen alive in Montego Bay while on her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate.