By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

MURDER and armed robbery charges were brought against a man in Magistrate’s Court yesterday who is alleged to be the second suspect in the murder of police Sergeant Wayne Rolle.

However, 29-year-old Kevin McKenzie told Magistrate Samuel McKinney during the arraignment that he had nothing to do with the December 4 killing and $700 Samsung cell phone theft.

Sgt Rolle was sitting in a vehicle with a female friend on Durham Street off Montrose Avenue when he was shot by two armed men.

McKenzie joins 25-year-old Dion Bethel who, on Christmas Eve, was charged with murder under Section 291 (1A) of the Penal Code, Chapter 84 concerning Sgt Rolle’s death.

A charge under this section attracts the discretionary death penalty a Supreme Court judge is given by the law, if a jury find the pair guilty of murder.

The single charge of armed robbery they face also carries up to life imprisonment.

Like Bethel, McKenzie was not represented by a lawyer. He was not required to enter a plea to the charges at this time.

Magistrate McKinney told McKenzie that he did not have the jurisdiction to grant or consider bail because murder was an indictable offence. 

He was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until he is tried in the Supreme Court or granted bail by the higher court, which he has a legal right to apply for.

Before his remand, however, McKenzie wanted the court to know he had been detained for seven days and was hospitalised as a result of alleged beatings he suffered while in police custody.

“I ain’t never kill no one in my life,” the accused told the court.

The magistrate made a note of his complaints before adjourning the matter to February 26, 2015 where a Voluntary Bill of Indictment will be read to fast track the matter to the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Kendira Farrington returns to Magistrate’s Court today to learn whether or not she will be granted bail.

Farrington pleaded not guilty last week to receiving the $700 Samsung cellphone between December 4 and December 20, knowing that it was obtained during the commission of a criminal offence.