KINGSTON, Jamaica – Two former Klansman members are set to testify as star witnesses for the Crown in the trial of alleged gang leader Tesha Miller and his 24 co-accused now underway in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston.

The accused are to answer to 16 offences allegedly committed over the span of five years between 2017 and 2022, according to the case being built by the Crown.

A senior prosecutor, in delivering the opening address following the arraignment of the 25 on Wednesday morning, said its 32 count indictment “places, presents and brings (the) 25 accused persons before the courts and reflects 16 separate criminal incidents committed over the span of five years.”

“The Crown is saying that the similarity in actors, in members, the similarities in modus and the similarities in outcome will be relied on by the Crown to illustrate that these 16 incidents were not isolated nor unrelated events but rather that they were the effect of sustained and organized criminal activity,” the lead prosecutor stated.

“In every organisation there is structure, purpose and in a criminal organisation it is no different. It is the Crown’s case that the first named accused on the indictment Mr Tesha Miller is the primary leader.”

The crown’s two star witnesses will be former members of the criminal outfit who are currently serving time for other offences and who decided to turn on their former allies.

“The evidence we intend to lead will establish that not only is Mr Miller primary leader but the other 24 are members of the criminal organisation and were active participants or associated members,” the lead prosecutor said. “The activities included the use of violence with the primary tool being the firearm and that was used to maintain territorial influence for individual and collective benefit.

“Their activities also includes a furthering of the criminal objectives of the criminal organization,” he added.

The trial is being presided over by Supreme Court judge Justice Dale Palmer.

Miller, who is currently serving 38 years at hard labour for engineering the 2008 murder of former Jamaica Urban Transit Company Chairman Douglas Chambers, is answering to charges under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) (Amendment) Act, commonly called the anti-gang law, for leadership of the Klansman gang. He is charged on 13 counts of the 32-count indictment.

READ: Tesha Miller pleads not guilty to being crime boss as Klansman trial gets underway
He and the 24 other accused pleaded not guilty to all counts with which they have been charged, including the second count of the indictment for the offence of being part of a criminal organisation.

– Alicia Dunkley-Willis