Subpoenas issued for defendants' medical records in Mario Deane case

WESTERN BUREAU:

High Court Justice Vivienne Harris yesterday issued subpoenas for the medical records of Marvin Orr and Adrian Morgan, the inmates charged in connection with the 2014 death of Mario Deane, who died from injuries sustained while in custody at the Barnett Street lock-up in Montego Bay, St James.

The judge made the order when Orr and Morgan, who are both mentally challenged, appeared before him in the St James Circuit Court.

"I am going to issue a subpoena for the medical logs, if any, for Marvin Orr at the Barnett Street Police Station, from June 24, 2014, to August 6, 2014. Similarly, I am issuing a subpoena for the medical logs for Adrian Morgan at the Barnett Street station lock-up from July 11, 2014, to August 6, 2014," said Harris.

The medical records should outline how many times they received their prescribed medication from the time they were first taken into custody to the date of Deane's death on August 6, 2014.

Attorney-at-law Franklin Haliburton, who is representing Morgan, said that the medical history would be needed in order to prepare psychiatric evaluations for both defendants ahead of their trial.

"We previously got some medical logs for the men when we were in Kingston. What we would need now is to see the medical history, and that may help the psychiatrists to prepare evaluations," said Haliburton.

Deane, who was 31 years old at the time of his death, was beaten into an unconscious state on August 3, 2014, while in custody at the Barnett Street lock-up, facing a charge of possession of a ganja spliff. He died three days later at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.