THE Keith Clarke murder trial was adjourned early on Tuesday due to a breakdown in the audio-visual technology during the testimony of a witness from overseas.

The unforeseen circumstance disrupted the testimony of Dr Dinesh Rao, who was giving evidence in the trial via a secured video link from overseas. Dr Rao is a former chief forensic pathologist in the Legal Medicine Unit at the Ministry of National Security.

Things were proceeding smoothly during the trial on Tuesday morning when suddenly an issue arose, prompting Justice Dale Palmer to grant a short break for the jurors, defence attorneys, and prosecutors.

When the short break ended the television that was being used to transmit the evidence being given by Dr Rao stopped working.

Other arrangements were made to in an attempt to circumvent the problem, using a projector and a projection screen, however the witness was barely audible to the judge, attorneys and jurors. The problem was also compounded by the witness’s heavy Indian accent.

Justice Palmer, before releasing the jurors for the day, said, “It seems that if it is not one thing, it is another. These things are clearly unforeseen. We took a brief break and it ended up being longer because of this issue.

“You may note that we are now screening from another device. It seems that during the break there may have been a surge of some sort that seems to have damaged the television. It is not working. It was able to be resolved but the audio is so poor. You can well appreciate that with Dr Rao’s strong accent it makes us unable to hear clearly what he is saying. As such, we are making alternate arrangements for the audio and, because of the time, it seems we have to break here because the facilities are not yet available. Arrangements are currently being made for us to resume Wednesday at 10:00 am,” Justice Palmer said.

Dr Rao said he hopes that his testimony can be completed by Wednesday as he would be unavailable to attend going forward, due to work travels.

Prior to the adjournment on Tuesday, Dr Rao was continuing to give evidence on bullet wounds found on Clarke’s body. His evidence included how the projectiles entered Clarke and how they exited.

He gave details of the bullet wounds and highlighted that quite a number of them entered Clarke’s body in an upward direction in his lower back and exited through his neck and chest region.

On trial for murder in relation to the May 27, 2010 shooting death of Clarke are Jamaica Defence Force lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley, as well as Private Arnold Henry. Clarke was shot more than 20 times, including in his back, during a security forces operation at his house at 18 Kirkland Close, Kirkland Heights, in Red Hills, St Andrew.

The operation was reportedly aimed at capturing then fugitive drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who was believed to have been hiding in Clarke’s basement with seven to eight of his heavily armed henchmen.

It is alleged that when members of the security forces arrived at the location, gunmen engaged them in a fierce gun battle which led to Clarke being killed inside his master bedroom.