By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER broke down in tears as a coroner’s jury returned an open verdict in the decade-old missing person case of Charlton Morley.

Michelle Gray maintains that her son was killed by gang members. 

Family attorney Glendon Rolle comforted her as she cried out she had been denied justice and her son had been killed.

The five-person jury could have returned an alternative finding of death by unknown causes.

Speaking with The Tribune on the courthouse steps on Friday afternoon, Ms Gray said that Sherene Williams, her son’s girlfriend at the time of his disappearance, failed to appear in court to give testimony despite being summoned.

Ms Gray previously testified her son had been murdered and said before his disappearance on May 1, 2015, he had been afraid for his life. She said she was told by Ms Williams that Morley had been picked up by his friends, Leo Jones and Levardo Whylly, that evening and had not been seen since.

Ms Gray said her son seemed very afraid and shaky the last time she saw him. She said he was afraid for his life. She also said her son told that if anything should happen to him that she could buy his house.

Ms Gray said in the month leading up to his disappearance Morley appeared uneasy, and that he went to the East Street South Police Station and reported members of a gang wanted to kill him. However, she said her son never told her why they wanted to kill him.

Morley had been on bail at the time of his disappearance for an armed robbery charge in 2013 and had been wearing a monitoring device. A police officer testified that on the day of his disappearance Morley monitoring device went offline and was never recovered.

Chantina Morley, Morley’s sister, testified virtually that around 2am on the night before her brother’s disappearance two armed men came to her house. She claimed the men had what looked like an AK-47 and a handgun.

She said the men told her to tell her brother he needed to move out of the area because they were looking for him to kill him.

The following morning at 6am she saw Morley and Ms Williams together and recounted what she was told the night before. She claimed her brother told her he wasn’t moving out of Gamble Heights because God got him.

After saying this was the last time she saw her brother alive, Ms Morley said in the months leading up to his disappearance she noted him acting uneasy and unlike himself.

Leo Jones, one of Moxey’s friends who called him “shadow”, said that he gave him and his girlfriend a ride on the day of disappearance.

Mr Jones said although he called Moxey later that evening he never got an answer. He also suggested that Moxey cut off his monitoring device.

Angelo Whitfield served as the evidence marshal. The coroner was Kara Turnquest Deveaux.