A man convicted of a 2017 shooting on Court Street in Hamilton has been given permission in part to appeal his conviction before the Privy Council in London.

Jahmico Trott was sentenced to serve 30 years behind bars after he was found guilty of attempting to murder a man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, in an incident on May 14, 2017.

He was also convicted of handling a firearm, carrying a firearm with criminal intent and witness intimidation.

Trott argued in the Court of Appeal that his conviction should be overturned because the judge had mishandled gunshot evidence in the case. The court dismissed the claim.

While Trott sought permission to appeal his conviction on the basis that the judge had given an “improper direction” in relation to gunshot residue found on his palms, the Privy Council refused him permission to progress that ground in a decision this month.

However, the council granted permission to argue another ground — that there should have been no verdict on the charge of carrying a firearm with criminal intent.

No date was given for when the Privy Council will hear the case.

The Supreme Court had heard the victim was at a home on Court Street when a man with his face covered in a scarf knocked on the door.

The victim’s cousin spoke to the man, whom he recognised as Trott by his voice, but shut the door after seeing a gun in the man’s hand.

Trott then climbed on to the balcony, while the victim and his cousin ran from the apartment. Trott chased the victim on to Court Street and fired four shots at him before the two began to fight in the road.

When a bystander attempted to break them up, Trott fired two more shots, one of which grazed the victim’s head, before the victim broke free and ran to Hamilton Police Station.

Meanwhile, Trott ran to a waiting motorcycle and attempted to ride away, but collided with a car, abandoned the motorcycle and fled on foot.

He was arrested the next day at his girlfriend’s home, where police found a bulletproof vest.

Officers also discovered a significant number of particles consistent with gunshot residue on the abandoned bike, while tests of Trott’s hands after his arrest revealed particles that contained two of the three components of gunshot residue.

Trott was originally convicted of the offence in 2018, but that conviction was overturned the following year because his lawyer in his original trial failed to call the defendant’s girlfriend as a defence witness.

During a retrial in 2021, Trott faced additional charges that he threatened or intimidated a witness and offered him a bribe.

The court heard that Trott spoke to the victim’s cousin in Westgate Correctional Facility and made allegations about the victim, threatened the witness and urged him to sign an affidavit to say the evidence he had given was false.

At the end of his retrial, he was found not guilty of bribery, but guilty of the other four charges by a majority verdict of 11 to one, and sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder, ten years for the use of a firearm and five years for witness intimidation, to run consecutively for a total of 30 years.

Trott was also jailed for 12 years for carrying a firearm, to run concurrently with the other sentences.

In 2022, he argued in the Court of Appeal that the judge had essentially reversed the burden of proof by stating that there was no credible evidence that the two component particles found on Trott’s hands came from an innocent source.

He also argued that the judge should not have allowed evidence that a bulletproof vest was found at the home where he was arrested and claimed he was hindered in his ability to cross-examine witnesses.

However, the Court of Appeal was not persuaded by the arguments, upholding the conviction.

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