KINGSTON, Jamaica — Senior Prosecutor Lisa Palmer-Hamilton has described a defence witness in the trial of former cop Rushon Hamilton as a “charlatan” and a man with “delusions of grandeur”.

The witness had testified that two prosecution witnesses told him they were going to frame Constable Hamilton for the murder of 14-year-old Jhaneel Goulbourne.

Last week the defence witness testified in court that while he was at the Horizon Remand Centre in February 2009, prosecution witnesses A and B told him that they were “going to plot a story” against Hamilton.

However, the prosecutor in her address to jurors Monday shot down that assertion saying that witnesses B gave his statement to police on October 25, 2008, the day after Goulbourne was abducted from her Harbour View, St Andrew home.

Witness A’s statement was also given before he met the defence witness in lock-up, Palmer-Hamilton told the jurors.

Palmer-Hamilton twice described the man as a charlatan while attempting to poke holes in his story.

The defence witness had testified that he came forward to give his evidence after listening to Nationwide Radio on October 1 and heard Hamilton’s name and those of witnesses A and B being called.

He said this was the first time he was listening to the news of the trial.

But Palmer-Hamilton told the jurors that he could not have heard Witness A’s name because that witness gave evidence on October 3 and his name could not have been mentioned on the news on October 1.

The defence witness also said that Witness A told him that Witness B was going to tell the police that Hamilton had approached him to dispose of a body.

Palmer-Hamilton however told the jurors that the witness listened to the news and got his facts mixed up because it was the statement of Kemar Johnson [a St Mary resident], which spoke to Hamilton approaching him to find a place to dump a body.

“His evidence does not add up, Mr Foreman and members of the jury,” she said. 

The prosecution also questioned why Hamilton did not take the stand but instead gave a statement from the prisoner’s dock.