US cops arrest freed GT man

(CNS): A George Town man was arrested in Miami, Tuesday, in connection with firearms smuggled into Grand Cayman in a refrigerator more than three years ago. Sources told CNS that Brandon Leslie-Ebanks, who was one of three men acquitted last month of the murder of Omar Samuels, was arrested by officials in the US as he tried to return to that country, where he had been residing before he was arrested and tried for the George Town shooting. CNS understands that the US authorities, who had held a warrant for Ebanks’ arrest since he was jailed in Cayman in 2009, arrested him on the aircraft. Local police confirmed that they had been informed by US authorities of the Caymanian man’s arrest. (Photo courtesy of Cayman27)

The arrest is in connection with several firearms, including one AK–47 magazine, one Mach 10 magazine, two Smith and Wesson handguns, a Titan Tiger handgun, a Taurus .45 handgun and a quantity of ammunition, that found their way to Cayman inside the door panel of a fridge shipped from the States in November 2008.

Michael Timothy Ebanks, who pleaded guilty to importation of firearms, was arrested in Cayman by customs officials after he tried to collect the fridge. He admitted that one of the guns was meant for him as he said he needed the weapon for protection.

Leslie-Ebanks was acquitted on 29 of November of the murder conviction after the Court of Appeal said that the case against him and two other men, Osbourne Douglas and Patrick McField, should never have gone before a jury because of the contradictory nature of the forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony presented by the crown and the judge should have stopped the case.

As the three men were released by the court of appeal and their life sentences set aside after more than two years in prison, Osbourne Douglas was immediately arrested by RCIPS officers in connection with the fatal shooting of Jason Christian on Crew Road in September. Police have not yet charged Douglas, who was in prison at the time of the killing, but who is accused of conspiring to commit the murder from his jail cell via a mobile phone.

All three men were arrested in connection with the Samuels case in September 2009 and were found guilty by a jury in September 2010.