It has been more than nine years since 21-year-old Phillip Daniel Clare Jr. lost his life after being struck by a vehicle while crossing Tonique Williams Darling Highway, a case that the victim’s parents refused to let go cold. Now, a serving police corporal has finally been formally charged in connection with his death, marking a long-awaited turning point in a case marked by years of delays and unrelenting advocacy from the victim’s family.
Forty-one-year-old Corporal Samuel Rolle, 3847, was granted $8,500 in bail during a hearing before acting Chief Magistrate Ancella Evans on Wednesday. He faces one count of causing Clare’s death through dangerous driving. This development comes nearly two full years after a Coroner’s Court inquest delivered a verdict of gross negligence manslaughter in the case, a finding that cleared the way for formal criminal proceedings.
According to prosecution allegations, Rolle was off duty on January 10, 2017, when he was operating a 2008 Suzuki Swift at excessively high speed. The vehicle struck Clare as the young man attempted to cross the highway to reach Pressure Point Bar to purchase food. Clare sustained catastrophic traumatic injuries in the collision and died shortly after the incident.
During the 2024 coroner’s inquest, the court heard critical details that were not publicly disclosed until that point: responding officers confirmed that Rolle’s vehicle was both unlicensed and uninsured at the time of the crash, yet no traffic-related charges were filed against him in the immediate aftermath of the incident. No plea was required from Rolle during his recent initial appearance before Magistrate Evans, and the case is on track to advance to the Supreme Court via a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI), a procedural path for serious criminal matters.
Prosecuting inspector Deon Barr did not raise any objections to the request for bail. In granting bail, Magistrate Evans ordered that Rolle secure one to two financially responsible sureties, and required him to check in daily at the East Street South Police Station every Thursday before 7 p.m. She also directed the prosecution to move quickly to set an early date for service of the voluntary bill of indictment, specifically noting the extraordinary length of time that Clare’s family has already waited to see the case heard in a court of law. Rolle is scheduled to reappear in court on September 3 to receive the official VBI documentation.
This long-awaited charge is the direct result of years of unrelenting pressure from Clare’s family, who have repeatedly spoken out about the agonizingly slow progress of the case and demanded accountability since the day of the crash. After the coroner’s inquest concluded its work, the full case file was forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to review and make a final determination on whether formal charges would be filed.
When contacted by The Tribune for comment on the years-long delay in advancing the case to court, police press liaison Superintendent Sheria King deferred questions about the timeline to the lead investigator assigned to the matter.
The case first captured widespread public attention back in 2018, when Clare’s parents made a public statement that they were prepared to launch a private prosecution if state prosecutors failed to take action. At that time, The Tribune reported that a memorial wreath honoring Clare sat atop a small stunted tree along the side of Tonique Williams Darling Highway, a quiet but constant public reminder of the fatal crash and the ongoing grief of his parents.
Clare’s mother, Ms. Reckley, shared at the time that she still listened to old WhatsApp voice notes from her son to cope with her overwhelming grief. His father, Phillip Clare Sr., said he still regularly visits his late son’s old bedroom, keeping it largely unchanged from when Phillip lived there. “The room is him,” he said in that 2018 interview. “I just go in the room and look.”
At the time, Ms. Reckley said justice had remained out of the family’s reach for years, and that no one could understand the pain her family had endured. “All I want is justice for Phillip,” she said then, a statement she has repeated consistently in the years since the crash. “No one is getting what I am feeling. My child was knocked down, and they’re like, it’s finished, we’ll just get over it. How can we get over it?”
Kevin Armbrister is representing Rolle in the proceedings.