THE Sony digital video camera that CVM Television cameraman Milton Reid testified he used to tape footage at Braeton on March 14 last year and which he promised coroner Lorna Errar-Gayle on Monday he would bring to court Wednesday, was not the camera he brought as he said he had made a “mistake”.

Instead of the Sony digital camera, Gayle showed the court a Beta camera, which he said was used to tape footage at 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton Phase 3 where seven youth were killed by the police on March 14, 2001.

Attorney Roger Davis representing the estate of Andre Virgo, one of the seven youth killed, cross-examined Reid and asked him whether he did in fact use the Beta camera or was lying.

Davis: Is this the camera or is it a lie?

Reid: This is the camera.

During cross-examination on Monday, the attorney showed Reid a Panasonic camcorder digital video camera which he said was not as sophisticated as the Sony digital video camera Reid testified he used at Braeton.

Reid agreed with Davis that the Panasonic had a feature that recorded date and time “down to a second”, but said that his Sony camera “doesn’t carry the date”.

The coroner instructed Reid to bring the Sony digital camera to court on Monday after lunch, but he said it was being used on an overseas assignment.

The station’s news manager, Milton Walker, who was in court on Monday, promised Errar-Gayle that a Sony camera similar to the one Reid used on the Braeton assignment would be brought to court Wednesday.

But when Davis resumed cross-examination of the cameraman and asked him if he had brought the camera, Reid said he was mistaken in what he told the court on Monday.

Reid: I made a mistake when I said that the camera I used that morning was a Sony DV cam digital video camera. It was actually a Beta camera.

He said that the Beta camera, which uses a bigger cassette than the Sony DV, was not digital and “doesn’t have a lot of features”. He also testified that the Beta camera had been assigned to him since 1999.

“This is the camera I used,” Reid told the inquest. “It has a fault and when (on Monday) the tape was replayed I realised it, because the zoom not so right. It is the only camera in CVM with this fault.

Asked by Davis how he could have made such a mistake, Reid said that in May 2001 he got a new camera, the Sony DV digital. “I thought I used the DV digital, I made a mistake.”

Davis: Do the cameras sometimes require repairs?

Reid: From this camera assigned to me I have never used another one.

Reid, who said the Beta camera had a built-in microphone that is activated automatically, was asked whether the microphone was on during the entire time he was taping footage at Braeton.

Davis: On that morning, was the microphone always on?

Reid: Yes. The microphone can only record when the camera is recording.

Davis: Did you regulate the volume down to a very low level?

Reid: No.

Reid was also cross-examined by attorney Dennis Daley representing the estate of Reagon Beckford, another of the slain youth.

Daley submitted that because of the keen competition between CVM and TVJ to be first on the scene for breaking news, Michael Pryce’s and Reid’s friendship with Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, gave CVM the edge in news involving the Crime Management Unit (CMU) and Adams.

Reid: No sir, I don’t agree.

Reid, in reply to a question from Daley, said that he had Adams’ office telephone number but not his cellular number.

Daley: Do you perceive that Adams has confidence in your discretion?

Reid: I don’t know.

Daley: I’m suggesting to you that your friendship gives CVM an edge when the CMU and Adams are at a crime scene.

Reid: No sir.

Daley: I am suggesting to you that you made up that you did not hear shooting to retain good relations with Adams.

Reid: Nothing like that.

Reid told Daley that when the bodies of the seven youth were being carried from the house, they looked to him like they were dead.

Under cross-examination from Attorney Richard Rowe, appearing for the estate of Tamayo Wilson, who was also killed on March 14, 2001, Reid said that it was possible to rewind the film and to tape over what had been taped before. Reid said that he would, however, not agree that taping over a section of a film previously taped was a type of editing.