SUPREME Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey on Friday issued a stern warning to prosecuting and defence counsel alike to have “every single, striking piece of paper that you need” for an April 13, 2026 trial date for the eight alleged members of the Ronko Gang who have before the courts since 2022.

This after a September 16, 2025 trial date was vacated in July this year partly due to the absence of several defence attorneys and indications from others that they would not be ready.

The Ronko Gang, which is believed to include several cops, has been linked to 17 incidents ranging from shootings, burglary, robbery with aggravation, illegal possession of firearm, shop-breaking, conspiracy to murder, and abduction.

The offences allegedly spanned Clarendon, Manchester, St Elizabeth, St Catherine, St Mary, Trelawny, Kingston, St Andrew, and St James between 2019 and 2021.

The seven men and one woman, who are jointly charged with breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisation) Act — commonly referred to as the anti-gang law — on Friday appeared before Justice Pusey in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court for another trial-readiness hearing.

Following exchanges with defence counsel and prosecutors, Justice Pusey made it clear that the extended time for the start of the trial was so attorneys would be ready to take the matter to conclusion.

“For all the counsel in this matter, I want you to listen very carefully. All the attorneys in this matter I have done matters with them and I have had the joy of being in the middle of the matter and being told that there is something that they didn’t realise wasn’t there or they want some document or something like that…so please ensure that everything that you need, you have now; so that when the trial starts, whether it is me or some other poor unfortunate judge, you have every single striking piece of paper that you need; that especially goes for the Crown,” Justice Pusey said.

Earlier, in explaining to the eight accused that the original trial date had been vacated because of their attorneys’ uncertainty over their availability, Justice Pusey said this had also impacted where the matter would fall on the court’s calendar.

“On the last occasion, we had vacated the trial date which was set for the 16th of September because we were not certain the attorneys would be available… however, the reason we had to vacate the date is that a trial like this takes considerable time meaning basically that we have to shut down another court with other matters because the length of this one is unusual.

”We are therefore suggesting that this matter should be dealt with at the beginning of the Easter Term. The advantage is that term is the longest, giving everybody the opportunity to get everything together,” he said.

In the meantime, a final trial readiness hearing was on Friday also set for January 29, 2026 ahead of the April 13 start date.

In turning down a request for defence counsel to appear via the
Zoom platform Justice Pusey said, “I don’t have anything against the platform… [but] I want the attorneys to be engaged in the matter… the history of this matter suggests a lack of engagement so I don’t know that I will go in that direction”.

In addressing the accused, among them Constable Tafari Silvera — who hung his head and sighed heavily when the April 2026 trial date was announced — Justice Pusey said, “what we have done here is that we set another trial date which is all the way in April. That’s because cases like this take us some time and so we have to make sure everything is ready. Your attorneys say they will be ready on that particular date so we hope that we will be able to do that going forward.”

Justice Pusey, in adjourning the matter, ordered that the four accused who have been in custody, namely: Silvera, Tehneil Francis, David Henry and Tevin Henriquez be further remanded and the bail for Jasette Brown, Daneilio Barnes, Ovilgo McKenzie and Rajay Morrison be extended until the next court date.