Battered but unbowed
Detective admits role in fatal shootings, but points out he has never been charged with murder
The prosecution’s first witness in the trial of members of the alleged Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman Gang, whose image had taken a battering from defence attorneys, on Wednesday ended four days of giving evidence, asserting that while he has been involved in multiple fatal shootings he has never been charged with murder and was acquitted of the sole corruption charge against him.
The detective corporal, who was recalled to the stand in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston on Wednesday morning, had testified that on March 5, 2023 he had gone to premises in Spanish Town, St Catherine, as part of a team from the now-disbanded Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC).
The cop, who said he was part of the cordon team, told the court that during a confrontation at those premises he shot dead a man who had challenged him. He also divulged that during that incident, a man, who is now the Crown’s star witness (yet to be revealed), and another were taken into custody.
Defence attorneys, over the course of his testimony, corralled the detective corporal accusing him of using his prowess as a skilled marksman with a track record of more then 10 fatal shootings to scare one of two former gangsters-turned-star-witness into fabricating evidence against all the 25 defendants now being tried.
Asserting that he was not a credible witness, the attorneys charged, among other things, that he shot and killed the man in the March 5 incident in cold blood and planted a firearm on him.
Delving into details about his stint in the constabulary, defence attorneys sought to establish that he was being removed from his post at C-TOC under questionable circumstances and was still under active investigation for the March 5 fatal shooting in addition to being fingered in corruption matters.
On Wednesday, in the cop’s closing moments on the stand, defence attorneys Denise Hinson and Kymberli Whittaker accused him of acting on “intel” received from popular YouTube vlogger Sir P during the 2023 operation which ended in the fatal killing.
According to the attorneys, the cop, who was interviewed by the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) about the fatal shooting incident, had told the investigators that he got information from the social media platform about the man who was killed in that shooting and one other individual said to have ties to the gang.
The detective corporal, in responding to those suggestions, asserted that he had listened to Sir P’s vlog, titled Politricks Watch after the March 5 incident and not before.
“I have never acted on any information from Sir P,” said the unruffled cop, who later went on to admit that he and colleagues would, however, listen to Politricks Watch at work.
His later admission under further questioning that Sir P was “a source” of “some information” about a particular individual, but only after the March 5 incident, brought some amount of amusement to some of the defendants who were completely engrossed during the exchanges between various counsel and the witness.
The prosecution vigorously objected to the line of questioning by the defence and warned that it bordered on “hearsay”, and was “disingenuous” and “dangerous” as there was no evidence in the trial presently to support what the witness was being questioned on, and as such invited him to “speculate”.
Supreme Court Justice Dale Palmer, who is presiding over the judge-alone matter, warned the defence against “conflating information or views expressed” as “intel”, pointing out that the witness had told the court that what he heard from the vlogger was “not intel”.
The acting deputy director of public prosecutions, who has been martialing the evidence in the matter so far, in re-examining the witness attempted to restore his shine.
“You were questioned as to whether you were previously charged for corruption, is that case at an end?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes, Sir…there was a complete trial…I was fully cleared,” the cop stated calmly.
When asked, “Have you ever been charged in relation to any other matter involving corruption?” the cop again replied in the negative.
“My learned friends engaged you about the number of incidents you were involved in where people were fatally shot…In your 13 years [in the Jamaica Constabulary Force], Sir, have you ever been charged for murder, Sir?” the experienced prosecutor pressed.
“No, Sir,” the cop replied.
With that the court was informed that his evidence had ended.
The matter resumes at 10:00 am Thursday when another police witness, who began giving evidence about a 2017 incident in Cross Roads, St Andrew, involving a fatality, will resume his testimony.
