Correctional officer on manslaughter charge gets bail

ST ANDREW, Jamaica – Correctional officer Everald Ferguson of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre was on Wednesday offered bail following an application made by his attorney in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Ferguson, who is represented by King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie, was charged with manslaughter following a recent ruling by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and is accused of killing an inmate.

He was offered bail in the amount of $600,000 with reporting conditions and ordered to return to court on December 1, 2023.

Allegations are that the officer, who was guarding an inmate at the Kingston Public Hospital on December 24, 2022, shot and killed him.

It alleged that the inmate, Winston Richards, attacked another correctional officer.

Ferguson intervened but was attacked by the inmate. Ferguson claimed that he was acting in self-defence.

However, it was brought to the court’s attention that the incident had been captured on CCTV footage and did not show that, at the time, Ferguson was under attack.

In making the case for bail, Champagnie indicated that it was regrettable that there were not any accompanying audio recordings to demonstrate that the inmate was intent on killing his client.

Champagnie also brought to the court’s attention that the inmate had been in several other altercations with other individuals at the correctional facility, where he was serving a term of imprisonment for possession of an illegal firearm.