A Half-Way-Tree Court magistrate yesterday issued a warrant for the arrest of the controversial East Kingston businessman Danhai Williams, for breaching the conditions of his October 2003 bail for fraud in the Operation PRIDE scandal.

Police complained that Williams had not been meeting his bail provision to report to the Half-Way-Tree police three times a week – Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

The police’s move against Williams, which could lead to the revocation of his bail, came a day after his name figured briefly, but tantalisingly, in the Crawle murder trial, during short-circuited testimony by Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey, the head of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF).

Williams is expected to be a prosecution witness in the case, but there have been rumours in the corridors of the Supreme Court building in downtown Kingston that he could not be found to be served with a subpoena.

The case in which Williams is being accused of not meeting the bail conditions involves allegations that his firm, Danwill Construction, and six other people siphoned over $450 million from shelter projects without having done the work for which they billed.

Williams, who faces 87 charges, has been on a $10-million bail. A travel ban was not imposed on him, and it was not clear last night whether Williams was in Jamaica and whether he had applied to the court to leave Jamaica.

In the Crawle case, Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and five other policemen are on trial for the alleged murder of four persons, including two women, at the village of Crawle, Clarendon in May 2003. Police claimed the four died in a gunfight.

Earlier in the case, a policeman, Tyrone Brown, testified that he had gone to East Kingston on the day of the Crawle incident and had observed a man hand over a gun to two other policemen. That gun, the policeman claimed, was taken to Crawle where Adams allegedly planted it in the house where the killings took place.

Brown did not disclose who provided the gun in East Kingston, but had told the court that the police he accompanied went to premises with construction machinery. He also said he knows Williams.

On Wednesday, Pusey told the court that on the day of the Crawle killings Williams had come to see him. While they were in conversation, Williams received a call on his mobile phone.

“There was an inaudible conversation and I heard him say something about a Taurus.,” Pusey said before he was stopped by an objection from defence lawyers.

There were legal arguments over Pusey’s testimony in the absence of jurors. When the jurors returned, Pusey faced no more questions about Williams’ telephone conversation.