DPP to act as judge; prosecutors’ exodus from SVG continues 

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sejilla McDowall has been appointed to act as a High Court judge in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court as the exodus of prosecutors from her office continues.

McDowall is the third senior prosecutor from her office to have left their post over the last two years or so.

Her exit was preceded by that of Tammika DaSliva McKenzie, a former assistant DPP, who was appointed a senior magistrate on April 1, 2024.

Then, Karim Nelson, the other assistant DPP, left his post to take up a prosecutorial position elsewhere in the Caribbean.

In addition to the two assistant DPPs, Rose-Ann Richardson, a senior prosecutor, has quit her post to seek opportunities elsewhere.

At the same time, Richie Maitland, a Grenadian lawyer who has been serving as senior crown counsel, has not appeared in court in months, reportedly as he awaits the resolution of a matter by the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Maitland is known for his surgical opening and closing addresses and his clinical prosecution of his matters.

He secured a conviction in the case in which Mitchell Israel was charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of his Cuba-born wife, Arianna Taylor-Israel, outside his alma mater — which one of their sons was attending — in Kingstown on Jan. 30, 2020.

In 2023, McDowall, Maithland, and Crown Counsel Renee Simmons successfully prosecuted contract killer Schemel “Jacket” Dunbar and his accomplice Kendine “Hoodie” Douglas, in the case in which the mastermind, Richard “Carib” Francis pleaded guilty of murder over the May 4, 2017 shooting deaths of brothers Danroy Cozier, a 26-year-old police constable, and Nicholas Cozier, 19.

McDowall’s appointment as an acting High Court judge will run from Sept. 1 to Feb. 28, 2026, the ECSC said on its website.

She will be assigned to Dominica.

However, most people who are appointed to act as High Court judges end up being appointed full-time. The acting appointment often comes as a result of an application.

McDowall created history by becoming the first female DPP in St. Vincent and the Grenadines when she was confirmed in January 2020, after acting in the post for almost two years.

She succeeded Colin Williams, who left the post in 2018 to become a judge in Belize.

McDowall was called to the bar about a decade and a half ago.

With her appointment, she will become the sixth Vincentian to serve as a judge at the same time. 

Justices Colin Williams, Rickie Burnett, Reachanne Browne, and Brian Cottle are also ECSC judges, while Justice Sonya Young is a judge in Belize.