CHIEF Justice Lensley Wolfe yesterday rejected a prosecution attempt to have a statement by Danhai Williams adduced at the Crawle murder case in the face of Williams’ failure to turn up to take the witness stand.

It took more than two-and-half hours of legal argument, in the absence of the jury, before Wolfe made his ruling, agreeing with defence attorneys that allowing Williams’ statement to be read into the records would be a breach of the Evidence Act.

Williams was expected to be a prosecution witness in the case in which Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and five other cops are being tried for the murder of four people in May 2003, at the village of Crawle, in Jamaica’s south-central parish of Clarendon. Two of the victims of the Crawle killings were women, who police said died in a gun battle between cops and criminals.

Williams, a controversial business and political activist based in East Kingston, was expected to give evidence supporting the purported planting by Adams of a gun – collected by cohorts at an East Kingston premises – at the death scene.

But Williams – for whom a Kingston magistrate issued an arrest warrant last week for breaching the terms of his bail in a separate corruption case – did not appear in court yesterday.

“The witness listed on the back of the indictment as number 36 (Williams) to testify today did not come my lord,” prosecutor Terrence Williams, told Williams yesterday. “. I wish to make certain submissions regarding the Evidence Act section 31 (D) but maybe this could be done in the absence of the jury.”

Defence attorneys – one of whom, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, ironically appeared for Williams at the time of his October 2003, arrest for allegedly defrauding the Operation PRIDE shelter project of $450 million – immediately objected. Shortly afterwards, at 10:20 am Wolfe excused the jury from the courtroom for both sides to air the merits of their position.

In the end, the judge held that to allow the statement to be adduced would be prejudicial to the accused.

The name of the controversial Williams, who is an activist of the ruling People’s National Party, had already twice figured in the trial, although on one occasion the effort to give evidence about him was aborted, while on the other the reference was brief.

Williams’ name first came up in the proceedings on November 14, when a police constable, Tyrone Brown, testified that on the evening of the Crawle killings, he and another policeman drove to a premises in East Kingston, following two policemen who drove another car.

At the East Kingston premises, Brown said, he witnessed a man giving two policemen a gun, which they took to Crawle, stopping on the way to fire the weapon. At Crawle, Brown testified, he saw Adams place the gun on the floor in the area where the victims were lying.

Brown at the time was asked if he knew Williams and replied ‘yes’.

Subsequently, the head of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF), Superintendent Donald Pusey, testified that Williams came to see him on the same evening of the shooting and that he overheard part of a mobile phone conversation Williams had after answering his phone.

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

It was expected that Williams would have been asked about this alleged conversation and perhaps about Brown’s testimony. But apparently neither police investigators nor bailiffs have been able to find Williams to deliver a subpoena.

Williams has also made himself scarce at police stations – particularly the one at Allman Town, near East Kingston, where he is to report on Wednesdays and Saturdays as a condition of his bail in the corruption case.

On December 1, frustrated cops told a magistrate in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court that Williams had not kept his twice-weekly appointments at Allman Town since October 21, causing the magistrate to issue the warrant for his detention. Williams also did not attend court on October 19, the last time his fraud case was mentioned.

In other developments in the Crawle case yesterday, police forensic expert Daniel Wray, who testified last week, was recalled to the witness stand by the defence. The defence said they wanted him to clarify evidence he had given about an envelope received from Vivian Richards. But Wolfe explained that he had already given that evidence and it was not necessary to call him again.

Wolfe ordered the defence to apologise to Wray.

In other matters, the prosecution said they would not require two witnesses – Earl Smith and Howard Mais of Cable and Wireless. Their testimony was contingent on Danhai Williams’ testimony.

Richard Mcfarlane of Digicel, who continued his evidence from last week, testified about accessing a series of cellular phone numbers. He said phone number 399-2788 was attributed to Adams. He also testified of accessing other phone numbers which he attributed to Pusey, witness Dennis Ballen, Michael Murray and deputy superintendent Easy Scott.

The calls were made between April and May, 2003.

The trial continues today.