Controversy-laden East Kingston businessman and political activist, Danhai Williams, figured briefly – and controversially – at the Crawle murder trial yesterday.

But an attempt by Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey to tell the court about a mobile telephone conversation he overheard Williams having was short-circuited by defence objections, followed by a round of legal arguments in the absence of the witnesses and jurors.

In the end, after Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe had ruled on the submissions and Pusey resumed his testimony, the prosecutors changed their line of questioning and Williams’ name was not mentioned again for the day.

Reneto Adams, the colourful former head of the defunct Crime Management Unit (CMU), and five of his former underlings are charged with the murder of four people – including two women – killed at Crawle, Clarendon in May 2003. At the time, Adams and his men claimed that the four died in a gunbattle with the police, who had gone in search of a wanted man – Bashington “Chen Chen” Douglas – but had come under fire.

Pusey, the head of the police Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF), is a key witness in the bid by prosecutors to show that the Crawle victims were the subject of extra-judicial executions.

Yesterday, Pusey testified that he was at the SACTF’s Ruthven Road, Kingston office on the evening of the Crawle incident when he had a visit from Williams.

“I was at my office when Danhai Williams came to see me on the evening of May 7, 2003,” Williams said.

Pusey suggested that he went into the yard of the compound to speak to the businessman, who is known for his connection with the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and his several brushes with the law, including an outstanding case for an allegedly fraudulent attempt to get money for work his construction firm did not do on the government’s

Operation PRIDE shelter programme.

“His (Williams’) cell phone rang while speaking to me,”

Pusey said. “He walked away a few metres. There was an inaudible conversation and I heard him say something about Taurus…”

At that point the defence objected, raising concerns about the probative value of the evidence, leading to a lengthy discourse between the judge and lawyers.

Williams’ name had previously figured in the case on November 14 when a police constable, Tyrone Brown, having followed two other policemen driving another vehicle to premises in East Kingston said he had witnessed them receiving a gun from a man and had seen Adams plant that same gun at the Crawle death house.

Brown did not name the person who delivered the gun in East Kingston, but had been asked by prosecutors if he knew Williams. He said yes.

In the face of the aborted testimony about the Williams phone call, Pusey’s testimony concentrated largely around a bus that Sergeant Que Facey had used to take Adams and his men to Crawle and whether he had approved the use of the bus, which was assigned to the SACTF.

The bus, Pusey disclosed, was primarily used by the SACTF intelligence unit in their effort to identify gang members and their hide-outs.

There was apparently some controversy over the circumstances under which the bus was used for the Crawle run.

Pusey said he was not aware that Facey had taken Adams and his men to Crawle in the bus, but knew about it when Facey returned and reported that the cover of the bus was blown because of the events at Crawle. “He told me four people were killed at Crawle and two guns were seized,” Pusey said.

But apparently Facey had also signalled to Pusey Adams’ wish for the bus to be used for the Crawle mission.

“I told Sergeant Facey that I would not release the minibus for him to go on operation with Adams,” Pusey said at one point during cross-examination. “I told Sergeant Facey to tell Adams to call me as a matter of principle before I release the bus to him.”

The defence stopped just short of suggesting outright professional jealousy on the part of Pusey against Adams, who conceded that his SACTF was eclipsed in popularity by the CMU after its formation in 2002.

At one point, asked about his relationship with Adams, Pusey snapped: “I have a good professional relationship with Mr Adams, but that is as far as it goes.”

Earlier, when being questioned by defence lawyers about the use of the bus and whether he knew how to contact Adams, Pusey said: “I have no telephone number for him.”

Pusey also rejected defence suggestions that he had, on three occasions, turned down requests for assistance with operations at Crawle to capture Douglas. “Never!” he declared.