THE statement of a dead cop, who was a prosecution witness in the murder trial of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and five other policemen of the disbanded Crime Management Unit, was yesterday admitted into evidence in the Home Circuit Court by Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, amid consistent objections from defence attorneys.

The policeman, Constable Joshua Antonio Black, a scenes of crime technician and photographer of the Area 3 police headquarters in Mandeville, Manchester was shot dead by gunmen in Bucknor, Clarendon last November.

Black had carried out investigations at the Crawle crime scene in May 2003 where four people – Lewina Thompson, Angella Richards, Kirk Gordon and Matthew James – were killed by the police at a house in Crawle, Clarendon in what the lawmen described as a shoot-out.

Crown counsel Terrence Williams had applied earlier for the statement to be read into evidence, but Justice Wolfe, who is hearing the evidence, rejected the application on the grounds that certain preconditions to make the application under Section 31 (d) of the Evidence Act to serve the defence with information to test the evidence were not met.

Defence attorneys objected on the grounds that they were not served with prior notice.

Justice Wolfe said the prosecution must establish that Black was dead before the application was made and reminded the crown counsel that where he intend to rely on the evidence of a dead person, notice of intention must be served on the defence of his intention. During submissions by Williams, Justice Wolfe argued that to grant the application was a discretion for the judge. “I have to decide it. It is not a right,” he said.

But after further arguments, senior defence counsel K Churchill Neita told the court that the defence said they would allow the statement to be admitted. Wolfe then made the order for admission.

In Black’s statement, read to the court by Detective Corporal Franklyn Brown, he said he had swabbed the hands of the four deceased persons, and for gun smoke the hands of constables Patrick Coke, Lenford Gordon, Devon Bernard, Shane Lyons and Roderick Collier, the other policemen who are on murder trial with Adams.

The samples were sent to the forensic lab for analysis.

Black, according to the statement, went inside the house at Crawle he said he saw blood on a bed and on the floor. A mark was in the blood on the floor, which looked like something was dragged through it, said the policeman’s statement.

Meanwhile, Detective Corporal Franklin Brown, a scenes of crime technician and photographer who testified of taking pictures of the scene, told the court that to his knowledge the two firearms which were found in the house were not dusted for fingerprints neither could he say if the fingerprint results had returned from the lab.

The prosecution is alleging that on May 7, 2003 a team of policemen led by Adams went to Crawle, Clarendon searching for wanted men. They went to a house and opened fire on the occupants killing four people including two women.

Yesterday, a Scotland Yard detective from London who helped in the investigations into the Crawle incident, Con Mark Baldry, was ordered out of court by Justice Wolfe after defence attorneys complained that although Baldry was told to leave the court on Monday he defied the order and had been in court since.

The trial continues today.