Minister ends testimony in cops’ murder trial
AN attempt was made by the defence to further establish, in front of a seven-member jury on Wednesday, that Agriculture Minister Floyd Green may not have been adequately able to see the unfolding of events in the January 12, 2013 shooting death of three men by the police on Arcadia Drive in St Andrew.
The deceased are Matthew Lee, Mark Allen, and Ucliffe Dyer.
Green, who is the main witness in the Home Circuit Court trial of six policemen who were charged with murder in relation to the incident, maintained a composed posture while being cross-examined by defence attorneys on Wednesday. The trial started January 19.
On trial are Sergeant Simroy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton, and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose, and Richard Lynch. Corporal Fullerton is also charged with making a false statement to the Independent Commission of Investigations.
Green lived in a multi-storey apartment building in the area where the incident occurred.
He gave evidence in court that he went to look through his room window after hearing an explosion which sounded like a gunshot. He told the court that he saw, among other things, a man running from the police, followed by more explosions.
Defence attorney Anthony Armstrong suggested to Green that the incident was a traumatic experience for him and, therefore, might have caused him not to see everything that happened on the day in question.
Green accepted that a stressful experience could affect someone’s ability to recall details of events.
“Stressful conditions would have affected my ability to recall all the details I saw,” he said, also explaining that he witnessed the event from an aerial view.
The attorney proceeded to ask Green if he knew why track side level seats at events are far more expensive than seats in the stands.
Green told the attorney that it all depended on what was on show.
“It depends on what you are watching. One would expect that because you are closer to what was happening, you would have a better vantage point, but that is dependent on what is happening. From an aerial view, you are able to see more things than at a street level, depending on what you are looking at,” Green said.
Another member of the defence team, Althea Grant-Coppin, asked Green to confirm whether he could speak to the hairstyles, complexion, build, or height of the policemen.
Green confirmed that he could not speak to those details.
Grant-Toppin asked the witness if he agreed that the windows of the motor vehicle in which the three deceased men had been travelling were tinted.
The minister said, “What I can say is that I could clearly see in the front and that would be largely through the front windscreen and the doors at the front which were opened. As I indicated, I couldn’t see in the back.”
Green was asked if he was ever shown photographs of the scene or made to revisit the scene.
“No,” he responded.
After defence attorneys completed their cross-examination of the witness, prosecutors sought to re-examine Green on a few points.
After that process was completed, Green was released as a witness.
The trial will continue today when the prosecution’s second witness will take the stand.
Other defence attorneys involved in the matter are Hugh Wildman, Linda Wright-Ashley, and John Jacobs.