KINGSTON, Jamaica – Both the Crown and defence completed their closing arguments in the murder trial against Andre Thomas, accused of the 2016 United States missionaries murders in St Mary.

The next phase of the proceedings will see the panel of jurors instructed on the law and how to approach the evidence. This will be done on Thursday, in the Supreme Court.

During the weeks-long trial, the Crown had called 23 witnesses to support its case, the defence only called Thomas, who gave an unsworn statement on Tuesday that despite observing the murders, he did not participate.

Harold Nichols, 53, and Randy Hentzel, 49, were missionaries for the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions. They went missing on Saturday, April 30, 2016 after leaving their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles to visit a site where they would be doing charity work the following week.

When they did not return a search party later that day discovered Hentzel’s body lying face down, his green helmet still over his head, with his arms bound “tightly” behind his back by a piece of cloth torn from the green T-shirt in which he was clad. Nichols’ body was found some distance away on the Sunday afternoon.

READ: Man charged with slaying of US missionaries

-Candice Haughton