WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — The seven-member jury hearing the trial of the three cops charged in the fatal beating of 31-year-old construction worker Mario Deane while in police custody in 2014 has been handed the case for deliberation.

The jury was handed the case by presiding Supreme Court Judge Justice Courtney Daye following the close of his summation and instructions to the jury in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Thursday at 1:38 pm.

Justice Daye, in handing over the case to the jury, instructed that they address each count separately. Count 3, manslaughter by gross negligence; Count 2, misconduct in a public office and Count 1, doing acts intended to pervert the course of justice.

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

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.

— Anthony Lewis