The defence in the ongoing trial of 25 suspected members of the alleged Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman Gang on Friday failed spectacularly in their bid to discredit a prosecution witness whom they accused of recently fabricating evidence he gave in the matter on Thursday.

The forensic crime scene investigator who processed the scene of a September 2017 murder, allegedly committed by two of the defendants, had testified that on the day in question he was sent to the Roger Avenue area of Spanish Town in St Catherine where he saw a motor car with what appeared to be bullet holes in the front windscreen and a pivot glass, blood smears on the left passenger door of the vehicle, spent casings on the ground beside it, and what appeared to be “a pool of blood” at the front of the vehicle, plus a discarded pair of brown slippers.

In giving the chain of custody for the items from that scene, the sleuth, a detective corporal, said after processing the area, which had been cordoned, he proceeded to Spanish Town Hospital where the body of a male with a “Rastafarian hairstyle”, and with what appeared to be bullet wounds to the upper chest, was shown to him. He said after photographing the body, it was tagged by morgue attendants after which he placed it in a white body bag, sealed it, initialled the seal, and photographed same before handing it over.

Defendants Dwayne Frater and Lamar Rowe, according to the indictment unsealed by the Crown last Wednesday when the trial began in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, are to answer for the murder of that man who has been identified as George Richards.

Frater and Lamar, under count seven of the indictment, are charged with “facilitating the commission of a serious offence by a criminal organisation” contrary to section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act, commonly called the anti-gang legislation.

Friday morning when the hearing resumed before Supreme Court judge Justice Dale Palmer, defence attorney Javed Grant launched the first broadside against the detective corporal.

“You would agree with me that you know how to write a statement and that you prepared a statement in relation to this incident on the 16th of September 2017 and at the end of the statement you signed it to be true to the best of your knowledge?” the attorney quizzed.

The cop responded in the affirmative and when questioned further said he had written the statement “a couple days after”.

Grant, in pointing out that the detective had taken photos and even produced a sketch of the scene in support of his statement, was at pains to point out that the cop, in his detailed statement, made no mention of a container but only did so when he took the stand for the first time on Thursday.

“Officer, yesterday in your examination-in-chief you spoke of observing a container on the crime scene… would it surprise you to know that in the statement you gave in relation to this matter and signed it to be true to the best of your knowledge and belief, there is no reference to any container? Would it surprise you, Sir, that in none of the photographs that were shown and you identified the different portions, there was no container pointed out? Would it surprise you that not even in the sketch that you made was any container present?” Grant questioned.

In response to the cop’s reply in the negative to all his queries, the attorney said, “My first suggestion is that your reference to you having obtained a container on September 16, 2017 is a recent fabrication.”

“I am also suggesting that there is nothing, whether in your statement or in the pictures or the sketch, to support any presence of a container on that day,” Grant continued.

“I disagree,” the cop replied.

When the cop further admitted that he had not, in fact, pointed out a container in the photos or sketch which had been shown to him, Grant, ending his interrogation, said, “I suggest to you that your mention of the container is mek yuh mek up dat… is somebody tell yuh to mention that container that is why you come and mention it.”

Continuing where Grant left off, defence attorney Tamika Harris, who is representing Lamar Rowe, charged that the reason the cop made no mention of the container in his statement but referenced it while giving evidence in court was because his colleagues at the Major Investigations Division, who were also involved in the case, had put him up to it.

“…You did a briefing, and they told you to mention the container, which is why you mentioned it the first thing when you came here, a container that was nowhere in your statement at all in 2017,” Harris contended.

An acting deputy director of public prosecutions who had voiced strong objections to Grant’s line of questioning in re-examining the witness, re-called the compact disc with the photos that was entered as an exhibit in the case on Thursday and pointed to two slides on which the disputed container was clearly displayed.

“Not only was it suggested that it was a recent fabrication but it was also put to him that the container was nowhere in the images that he took… Counsel saying he has put it in the context of the pictures which were shown doesn’t take it any higher, M’lord… it is my friend who has placed it squarely on the table that there is no container which is precisely the reason for re-examination,” the senior prosecutor stated.

Stating that he was going the extra mile to revisit more than one photo for the tribunal, the prosecutor said this was “because it was being insisted [by the defence] that the mention of the container was a recent fabrication”.

The prosecution is yet to lead any evidence indicating the circumstances surrounding that murder and the alleged involvement of the two defendants named in respect of that count.

The detective corporal, who on Friday finished giving his evidence, is the prosecution’s fourth witness.

The matter resumes Monday at 10:00 am before Justice Palmer who is hearing the evidence sitting alone.

The 25 accused, the second faction of the gang to now be tried by the courts, are to answer to 16 offences allegedly committed over the span of five years, between August 2017 and November 2022, according to the case being built by the Crown.

Last Wednesday during arraignment of the alleged gang boss Tesha Miller and his 24 co-accused, all 25 pleaded “not guilty” to all counts with which they have been charged, including the second count of the indictment on which they are all charged with the offence of being part of a criminal organisation.