EIGHT months after Supre me Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey issued a stern warning to prosecuting and defence counsel 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, those proceedings remain in limbo.

Two trial dates have now been vacated for the accused who have been before the courts since 2022.

A September 16, 2025 trial date was vacated in July last year partly due to the absence of several defence attorneys and indications from others that they would not be ready, at which point Justice Pusey made it clear that the extended time for the start of the trial in April this year was to accommodate attorneys being 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 at the time.

The trial should have started on April 13, 2026 and was expected to run until June 15, 2026. However, after a January 2026 trial readiness hearing was adjourned to February the trial date was again vacated and the matter moved to case management in April before Justice Pusey.

On April 30, when the case came up for mention, the court was told that no counsel from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was specifically assigned. Justice Pusey, at that time, gave the prosecution until Thursday, May 14, to produce a time frame for the trial and the witness list.

However, Thursday when the matter was again called up before Justice Pusey in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court, the prosecution indicated that its files were still incomplete. Defence attorneys then prevailed on the judge to offer bail to the four accused now in custody, arguing that it was “unfair” for them to be kept behind bars simply because the prosecution’s files were incomplete.

The seven men and one woman are jointly charged with breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisation) Act — commonly referred to as the anti-gang law.

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.

Justice Pusey, after hearing submissions from the defence attorneys involved in the matter, indicated that he would hear bail applications for the four men in custody, namely Tafari Silvera, Tehneil Francis, David Henry and Tevin Henriquez.

The accused, Jasette Brown, Daneilio Barnes, Ovilgo McKenzie and Rajay Morrison, are on bail.

Attorneys Ovilgo McKenzie, Denise Hinson, Tamika Harris, Andrea Whyte-Walters, Donahue Martin and Richard Lynch are appearing in the matter.