A “white boy” from Lyford Cay, along with drug dealer Dwight Major, was identified by an unnamed witness yesterday as one of the supposed financiers of January’s prison breakout, which led to the deaths of prison officer Deon Bowles and inmate Neil Brown.
Reference to the “white boy” came at a coroner’s inquest when Assistant Supt Anthony Ferguson read the written statements of several witnesses into the court’s records.
Reading from the statement of a witness identified only as “X”, ASP Ferguson, a 19-year veteran of the Central Detective Unit, said that “Dwight Major, G.O., and the white boy from Lyford Cay were financing the operation.”
The written statement claimed that Major, an inmate at Her Majesty’s Prison who is awaiting extradition to the United States on drug charges, and the “white boy” were like bosses because they knew about all of the senior officers’ “dirt” before they were big.
ASP Ferguson continued reading from the statement and said that “G.O. and Major was to put down $1 million to facilitate the breakout,” and once out, the men were to use keys acquired from an officer to let out anyone “who wanted to go.”
According to the statement, inmate Forrester Bowe also paid prison sergeant Steven Sands $5,000 for a gun that was to be used as a part of the breakout, but the sergeant never delivered the weapon.
Bowe, the statement revealed, threatened to kill Sands for not delivering the gun. However, he never carried out the act.
In turn, inmate Bowe, the statement added, “started using Johnson from the south as the pilot.”
The unidentified witness also testified to the role that each of the four escaping prisoners was to play. In the statement, it is alleged that, even though Forrester Bowe was considered ‘the boss’ of the group, and he was the one with a safe in his cell, inmate Barry Parcoi was supposedly the ringleader for the escape.
Seeing that he had escaped from the security facility on a number of occasions, inmate Corey Hepburn was chosen to lead the group in its escape from the prison, and inmate Neil Brown, as the strong man, was to have overpowered guards who sought to prevent their escape.
The witness, in the statement, said that, when he awoke and heard the noise being made by prisoners, he realised that the plans of the escaping men had been changed.
After the statement by “X” was read into court records, the statement of another unnamed witness, “Y”, was read. In this, the names of numerous prison officers suspected of being involved with trafficking contraband goods into the prison were read off.
According to the statement, officers Roker, Mackey, Ferguson from Foxhill, Big Fat Rolle, Big Black Lafleur, Big Black Kemp, Big Ton Rolle, Ford, Thompson, and several other officers, were seen trafficking contraband items such as marijuana, blades, cellphones and alcohol.
ASP Ferguson also read from the statements of inmate Barry Parcoi, recounting his written version of events that transpired in the early morning hours of January 17.
In the original statement made by Parcoi on January 23, he said he learned of the escape plan when he moved on to the C block of maximum security. ASP Ferguson then went on to read Parcoi’s tale of escape and recapture. He said that after the original deposition was taken from Parcoi, he requested a second meeting to add something else to his statement. The addition, he said, revealed that Parcoi and Forrester Bowe met Officer Bowles walking away from Corey Hepburn’s cell, and at that time, he held Bowles while Hepburn and Brown stabbed him.
He added that Hepburn proceeded to turn off the lights before they escaped.
After their escape and recapture, and while awaiting transport back to the prison, Pakoi described how Mackey came on to the bus as saying: “This the same nigger who killed the archdeacon, so he must have killed Bowles.” He allegedly shot inmate Neil Brown.
Another inmate whose statement was read into evidence by ASP Ferguson, Forrester Bowe, remembered how, crawling to the back of the bus, he too saw Officer Mackey shoot inmate Brown.
The statement of Bowe, who never gave testimony at the inquest, went on to describe the beating that both he and Parcoi allegedly received at the hands of officers upon returning to the prison from Yamacraw Road and later from Princess Margaret Hospital.
Bowe’s statement identified Neil Brown and Barry Parcoi as the masterminds of the break.
He went on to say that he did not know of a plan to injure any officer. Because everything
was going so fast after he left his cell, the statement added, he did not see who stabbed Officer Bowles.
For the rest of yesterday’s proceedings, ASP Ferguson continued to read the statements of inmates and officers into the records.
Then the hearing was adjourned to Monoy at 10am.
Source: The Tribune
