‘Never knew Rasta’s name’
A NEW WITNESS took the stand yesterday at the I’Akobi Maloney Inquest at Coroner’s Court.
Shon Boyce, who admitted to being a homosexual from his childhood days said he was introduced to Jason Collymore, a former witness at the inquest, in 2003.
He was introduced to Collymore, he said, and they subsequently got involved in a same-sex relationship where he was the outside man, since Collymore, who works at the Cement Plant, told him that he had a Rastaman and he, Boyce, should never come to the house when the man was there.
He said Collymore lived at White Hall Main Road in an apartment, and he did not know the Rastaman’s name as it was never told to him, but he used to pass a man on the stairway going down smiling as he would be going up.
Boyce said he only recognised that the man was Maloney when he saw the advertisement in the paper and decided to come forward and give testimony after reading Collymore’s evidence in the newspaper that he was not gay.
Rasta lover
He said Collymore had told him about problems he was having with his Rasta lover. Boyce said he was involved with Collymore in 2006, 2007, and 2008, but he could not recall the exact dates and times that he encountered Maloney on the stairway.
Attorney for Maloney, Andrew Pilgrim, asked him if at any time they ever spoke on the stairs, and Boyce said he never said nothing to him.
He said after seeing it in the paper he called Inspector Martin Jones, the prosecutor, but he was on vacation. Boyce said he knew Jones from before when he washed cars.
Pilgrim asked him if he ever heard that Collymore and Maloney had broken up and his reply was “no”.
Boyce said Collymore and he ceased to be lovers in a dispute, and it was after Crop-Over, in October, that they broke up, and he was very sure he did not see the Rastaman that time. Pilgrim told him that was because Maloney died in June.
Pilgrim asked if he was still Collymore’s lover when he saw the death in the paper, and he said “yes”. He asked Boyce if he did not question Collymore about it.
“It was not my concern,” Boyce replied.
He admitted that his purpose for being in court was to prove that Collymore’s denial about being gay was lies.
Two officers, Constable Wendell Walkes and Acting Sergeant Wingrove Headley, took the stand and both said Maloney had no marks on his body.
Walkes went into some personal history, on the questioning of Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris, about his own Rasta brother’s suicide.
He said when he questioned Maloney he tried to find a point where they could meet in the conversation, but while Maloney was just calm he saw signs of him being troubled. Walkes said he was in shock when Maloney ran.
Headley said he was wondering why a man who lived in Reed Street, The City, was at Landlock, St Lucy, in his boxers.
Coroner Marshall-Harris asked him if anyone in his custody had ever dashed to freedom or met their death, and he said “no”.
Pilgrim asked him why he could not accept that the man went to the sea and he said people usually swam ashore with drugs.
The coroner asked why it was strange that Maloney came from Reed Street. Headley said that was his initial thought, but after questioning, he realised Maloney worked at the Cement Plant.
Tags: Andrew Pilgrim, Arawak Cement Plant, Constable Wendell Walkes, custody, drugs, homosexual, Inspector Martin Jones, Jason Collymore, same-sex relationship, Shon Boyce, Wingrove Headley