Jamaica will learn today whether the Office of the Director of Prosecutions (ODPP) will accept a manslaughter plea entered on Monday by former People’s National Party Member of Parliament (MP) Jolyan Silvera in the 2023 shooting death of his wife Melissa.

In a shocking twist to the high-profile case, Silvera pleaded guilty to the lesser offence, two years after pleading not guilty to murder and using a firearm to commit a felony.

His murder trial was scheduled to start on Monday in the Gun Court Division of the Supreme Court in downtown, Kingston.

The media were not allowed inside the courtroom as the case is an in-camera matter as Gun Court sessions usually are.

The Jamaica Observer was told that as the trial was about to get underway, Silvera pleaded guilty to manslaughter after being asked to indicate whether he was guilty or not guilty of the two offences with which he was charged.

His attorney, Peter Champagnie, declined to give a comment on what the next step in the case will be, following the development.

“The matter is before the court. It is an in-camera matter and I cannot comment at this stage,” was all Champagnie was willing to say when pressed by journalists.

Even prosecutors shied away from commenting on the matter. However, an Observer source explained that, in a case such as Silvera’s, prosecutors would have to indicate whether they are willing to accept the manslaughter plea. According to the source, there are a number of steps which will have to be taken before the prosecution can arrive at that decision, which includes an adjustment of the indictment.

It was unclear what will happen to the charge of using a firearm to commit a felony, but Silvera and his legal team appeared confident that a decision in their favour would be arrived at today by prosecutors.

When Melissa Silvera was found dead on November 10, 2023 it was believed, based on initial reports, that she had died in her sleep due to natural causes. Her funeral was held two months later in January 2024 at St Andrew Parish Church in Half-Way-Tree just under four weeks after investigators upgraded her cause of death to murder.

Investigators had upgraded the case to murder after an autopsy revealed that fragments from bullets were found inside her body. Sources told the Observer that a unique identifier for each licensed firearm in Jamaica, which is stored by the Firearm Licensing Authority, was used to prove conclusively that the bullet which killed Melissa came from the gun licensed to her husband. Sources added that initial ballistic tests had not shown that the gun had been fired.

At the funeral, Jolyan Silvera wept openly.

After he was arrested in January 2024 he maintained his innocence.

Retired Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Fitz Bailey, who is now serving as commissioner of police in the Turks and Caicos Islands, had announced in January 2024 that there was sufficient evidence to slap charges on Silvera and therefore the former MP was arrested by detectives assigned to the Major Investigations Division.

Bailey said then that several lines of inquiry were drawn during the investigation and was satisfied there was sufficient evidence to mount a viable prosecution.

Six days after Melissa Silvera was laid to rest, Jolyan Silvera was arrested, and at that time, DCP Bailey said comprehensive work was being done to uncover answers in the case so that the family of the deceased and the public would see that justice was served.