Having been acquitted of causing the death of 27-year-old promoter Barrington “Bossie” Burtona, Vibez Kartel [real name Adijah Palmer] remains in Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston, Jamaica for the alleged fatal beating of friend Clive “Lizzard” Williams. He maintains that the numerous murder allegations – including a third, involving former road manager Patrick “Roach” Samuels – are false.
On Sunday, September 15, police acting, they say, on intelligence received, searched the singer’s cell and confiscated two cellular phones and three thumb drives. The following day they returned and took a DVD player and an apple iPod from the cell. They also seized a DVD player from the nearby cell of Shawn Campbell, otherwise called ‘Shawn Storm’. The items are being analyzed for evidential purposes in the search for Samuels’ killers.
In response, Kartel’s lawyers have produced a document, they contend, that gives their client permission to have the DVD and MP3 players. They say that the two telephones reportedly taken from their client’s cell were in fact taken from an adjoining cell. ”The occupier of that cell has already indicated to the authorities that the phones belong to him,” they state. The lawyers are now questioning the motive of the police release on the search of Kartel’s cell.
“This news release was obviously calculated to prejudice the pending bail application and trial of Mr. Palmer set in the Home Circuit Court for the 18th of November 2013. It contains the obvious implication that by possessing these items of ‘contraband’ Mr. Palmer was in some way connected to the murder of Samuels.”
Meanwhile Vybez himself has been talking via email to Boomshots.com. Concerning the trial delays that have seen him held in custody for two years, he said:
“The injustice system of Jamaica is trying to use me as a scapegoat for crime, so they’re trying to build a case that doesn’t exist.”
He also said that he’s most affected by the separation from his family. “That’s the most painful thing. Not seeing my family, especially my kids.”
Kartel’s words come as Tads Records release Kartel Forever: The Trilogy, a triple-disc album comprised of old hits and other music recorded, “before he was locked away,” according to label boss Tad Dawkins. “They were never released. So what the producers did, they just put new instruments and gave it a new mix, like the new kind of stuff that’s going on now.”
In a press release promoting his album, Kartel assured fans that despite the incarceration he’s “still up to the time.”
Dawkins agrees:
“He also thrives from controversy. He will take something and turn it around and twist it so he will look good. He loves controversy – like what’s happening now with the police when they raided his cell. He’s getting so much press out of it you’d never believe it.”
