THREE police witnesses — including a retired deputy superintendent of police versed in investigating major crimes — on Wednesday took the stand in the ongoing trial of cab driver Andre Thomas who is facing two counts of murder for the 2016 killing of American missionaries Harold Nichols and Randy Hentzel.

The cops are the latest in the line-up of 21 prosecution witnesses to testify since Monday to establish how the men met their demise in a crime which captured international attention. So far, 11 crown witnesses have taken the stand. The defence is expected to call two witnesses.

Nichols, 53, and Hentzel, 49, his colleague missionary for the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions had on Saturday, April 30 left their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles intending to visit a site where they would be doing some charity work the next week. They never made it and Hentzel’s battered body was found that Saturday evening by the police in bushes near his motorcycle, while Nichols’ body was found the next day several miles away, bound and beaten. The cause of death for both men was later said to be gunshot wounds and multiple chop wounds to the back of their heads.

On Wednesday morning a forensic crime scene investigator, who was the first to take the stand, said he left from a crime scene he was processing to St Ann in respond to a call about a body discovered in Wentworth District in Port Maria, St Mary, on Sunday, May 1, 2016. He said after journeying along a path in the Albion mountains in the company of other cops he came upon a large crowd of people near a stream where he then saw the body of Nichols lying on its back. He said the Caucasian man had “a large volume of dried blood between his eyes and several chop wounds on the back of his head and blood and bruises to his face”. He said two of the six pockets of the dead missionary, who still wore his wedding band, were turned inside out.

A detective corporal, also a forensic crime scene investigator, who took the stand next told the court that he collected, labelled, sealed, and marked blood samples, fingernail clippings, and a copper bullet handed over by the forensic pathologist during the post-mortem which he transported to the government forensic laboratory. He said items of clothing were also marked and sealed and handed over for testing.

A retired deputy superintendent of police, who had given some 37 years of service to the constabulary, told the court that the day before (Saturday, April 30) he had been summoned to Wentworth District where, in the company of several high-ranking members of the constabulary, he saw the body of Hentzel in a clearing lying face down with his helmet on in a pool of blood. He said he had been instrumental in the arrangement of the search party which found Nichols on Sunday, May 1. He said that search party, which included some 20 cops and just over 30 community members, about 3:30 pm, located Nichols.

“I heard loud noises coming from a gully area in the bushes. I proceeded in the direction of the noises and upon arriving at a section of the gully… I saw number of individuals, including police personnel who were among the search party. I looked into a section of the gully and saw the lifeless body of a white male floating in a pool of water. The body had what appeared to be chop wounds at the back of the head. The body was identified as that of Harold Nichols,” he told the court.

The retired senior cop said he, in June of that year at the Richmond Police Station in St Mary, spoke to the accused Andre Thomas regarding statements he had given to the police.

He was, however, prevented from disclosing the contents of that discussion based on objections raised by counsel for Thomas, Leroy Equiano.

Wednesday the lithe-bodied Thomas, clad in full black, listened intently to the accounts given by the cops, alternating between reclining in his bench in the docks, one foot propped on the supporting wooden rail or sitting upward, fingers splayed over his mouth and plucking at his facial hair.

Dwight Henry, his co-accused, who had pleaded guilty for his role in the murders, is serving a life sentence with eligibility for parole after 28 years.

The matter resumes this morning at 10 when the forensic pathologist is expected to give evidence.