Published: April 29, 2026
MONROVIA — A police investigator told Criminal Court ‘A’ on Wednesday that a taxi driver accused of killing an officer at a Monrovia checkpoint last September deliberately ignored repeated warnings and kept driving as the dying officer pleaded for his life, testimony that sharpened the prosecution’s case for willful murder over the defense’s claim of a traffic accident.
Investigator Jacob Suah’s account was one of three witness testimonies heard in the ongoing murder trial of Francis Nana, whose case has drawn significant public attention since Officer Mark Bracewell was killed Sept. 28, 2025, near Slipway.
Police Officer James Kermukai, who was present at the checkpoint, told the court that Nana refused to stop at the checkpoint, struck Bracewell and continued driving while the officer clung to the vehicle before sustaining fatal injuries.
Medical testimony from Emmanuel Villizu of John F. Kennedy Medical Center established that Bracewell was brought to the hospital dead, with severe head injuries. Villizu said the injuries were consistent with a violent road incident but that a definitive cause of death would require further forensic analysis.
The defense, in cross-examination, pressed the argument that the incident was a traffic accident rather than an intentional killing — a distinction that will be central to the outcome of the trial.
Presiding Judge Roosevelt Willie navigated several procedural disputes during the week’s proceedings. He held an absent juror in contempt and ordered the individual to appear and account for the absence, and fined a second juror $50 for arriving late. When the prosecution objected to new defense lawyers joining the case without prior notice, the court ruled the objection was filed too late, allowing the expanded defense team to proceed while ordering all lawyers to present valid bar licenses.
The court granted a continuance, with additional prosecution witnesses expected in subsequent hearings.
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