SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — The Crown on Monday argued that three cops charged in connection with the fatal beating meted out to Mario Deane while he was in police custody in 2014 failed in their duty to provide due care to their prisoner.

In making its case, the Crown also told the seven-member jury that Deane’s death was the price he paid for expressing his dislike for the police.

The three accused are Corporal Elaine Stewart along with district constables Marlon Grant and Juliana Clevon. They are all charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office.

On Monday the Crown pointed to testimony that Deane was upset at being taken into custody, then things took a turn for the worse when his friend came to provide him with bail and Corporal Stewart commented that Deane did not even know his address. It was at this time that Deane made known his dislike for the police, which resulted in his bail being delayed. He was then placed in a cell with people of unsound mind, the Crown argued.

The Crown also noted that, based on evidence in the case, Deane’s comments triggered Corporal Stewart’s decision to delay bail.

“It is blasphemous if you tell the police that you don’t like them,” the Crown suggested in its address to the jury.

The Crown further questioned whether the police had considered the risk of putting Deane in a cell with people of unsound mind. A better approach, the Crown argued, would have been to encourage Deane to sit and calm down in the guardroom.

“When Stewart, Grant, and Clevon escorted Deane back to the cell, can you say that they were executing a duty of care?” the prosecution asked of the jury rhetorically, before noting that a comment allegedly uttered by Corporal Stewart is closely relevant and cannot be separated.

“Yuh nuh have no manners. Mi ah go teach yuh ah lesson. Ah dead yuh fi dead,” the Crown reminded the jury of Corporal Stewart’s alleged retort to Deane.

The prosecution also tried to convince the jury of the credibility of one of its witnesses — an inmate who gave a chilling account of Deane’s beating and the reaction of the cops when they were told what had happened to him.

Earlier in the day on Monday, trial judge Justice Courtney Daye ruled against the admissibility of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Lock-up Administration Policy and Procedures document, which deals with the treatment and welfare of people taken into custody up to the point of their release.

He had reserved judgment on the document which the Crown had unsuccessfully tried, on numerous occasions during the trial, to have admitted into evidence.

In his ruling, Justice Daye noted that something more was needed for the document, which was taken from the Internet, to be admissible. He further argued that while the document is relevant, verification is needed.

The allegations in the case are that Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody, where he was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014. He sustained severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

It is alleged that the three cops were on duty at the police station when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Stewart, who has an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.

The Crown is expected to complete its address to the jury Tuesday at 9:00 am. The defence team will follow next with their arguments.