KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) sergeant, Theophilus Tracy, who was charged with failure to hand over his firearm to police following the discovery of a dead woman in his vehicle, is to be the subject of an identification Parade.

This was revealed this morning in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, when Tracy’s attorney-at-law, Peter Champagnie, disclosed that the defendant was not present in court because of said identification parade.

Although the reason for the identification parade was not divulged, Champagnie said, “the parade should be for this week, I hope… I didn’t get a definitive response as to when.”

“I gather that this is as a result of certain discussions between the crown and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP),” Champagnie confirmed.

While discussing a further date for the matter to be mentioned in court, the attorney-at-law renewed his calls for his client to be granted bail.

“The difficulty that I have is this, the accused has been in custody since 26 of February,” he told the court.

Acknowledging the length of time, Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague said, “It has been a while.”

Champagnie continued, “Your Honour, you may recall on the last occasion we were told that we were awaiting some ruling from the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions]. We are now at a stage where today, an application for bail was going to be made. We have not made an application for bail in this matter and as I understand it, an identification parade would not take more than a day or four hours. So, I’m asking ma’am, if Your Honour could accommodate next week, if only to set a bail for application.”

He also noted that the matter has not moved from his first appearance in court, because of “administrative issues concerning the DPP and so on.”

Tracy, who was charged by police for failure to hand over his firearm for inspection after a suspected prostitute was found dead in his vehicle on Saturday, February 26, was further remanded in custody in April to allow police to complete assessment of a firearm that was handed over to investigators.

His next court appearance is slated for May 16.

The St Andrew Central police had reported that about 4:20 am, the Cross Roads Police responded to an assignment of a motor vehicle collision, and on arrival of the team, a grey Honda Fit motor car was seen with a woman’s body protruding from the front passenger seat.

The body was reported to have multiple gunshot wounds.

Police said the deceased, who is still unidentified, appeared to be in her late-thirties, is about five feet long, and has a skin tone that shows evidence of bleaching.

It was clad in a black blouse, purple sweat pants, and one foot of black-and-red Nike sneakers.

Investigations that followed revealed that the motor car belonged to the JDF sergeant, who is also a licensed firearm holder. He was located and taken into custody.

– Candice Haughton