KINGSTON, Jamaica — Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman strongly opposed an application by prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke for a judge to grant a short break in the murder trial of six policemen in the Home Circuit in downtown Kingston on Tuesday.

Pyke told trial judge Sonia Bertram Linton that in order to ensure tidiness in how the prosecution outlines its case, she was requesting an adjournment until Monday.

However, she recommended that prosecutors and defence attorneys sit on Friday without the seven jurors being present to sort out administrative matters relating to the case.

Prior to Bertram Linton approving the request, Wildman made his objection known, citing that time was being wasted by the prosecution.

Pyke, in her application for the adjournment, told the judge that at this point of the trial, the prosecution has a certain order in which it would prefer for witnesses to appear.

“There is a particular witness who is the pivotal step before we get to those individuals in the form of experts. In light of certain objections made today and the results of that objection, I believe that the Crown is in a position where if certain foundational material needs to be properly before the court, we need time to do our due diligence to make the necessary preparations to have that in place when the witness testifies.”

“I want to consider my options available and ensure that whatever arrangements are made are made with precision and effectively so that once we start with that witness, everything is in place. The case involves many facets and many types of witnesses. I never intended to ask for any adjournment, I intended to just go straight.

“Certainly, as of today, I now have to think of what is the best arrangement. We want to be in a position where material can be properly put before the court bearing in mind all the rules of evidence and the rules of prosecution. We can’t go any further until that is sorted out,” Pyke said.

Wildman told the judge that he was opposing Pyke’s application because he believes the Crown is wasting time. He said the Crown had the Easter holidays to sort out certain things and expressed that he did not believe the court should be at the convenience of the prosecution.

“The scales of justice must be held evenly. Since this case started the defence has been here every day. I have not missed a day in this trial. I put off everything. I put off other trials to be here. I am saying that the officer [from the Independent Commission of Investigations] who is on the back of the indictment and who is skirting around the court and inside the court every day, he can be called as a witness while the Crown puts its house in order.

“The jurors, myself and the court, we are not here at the convenience of the prosecution. We have other witnesses on the back of the indictment who are available and he can be called while the Crown is putting its house together. Today is Tuesday and we have to put off this case until Monday. It is a waste of time,” Wildman said.

Before Pyke made her request, she pressed a detective during examination-in-chief about compact disks containing photographs of evidence at the scene of the crime. The detective was called as a witness by Pyke despite not having anything to do with the investigation of the case or the preparation of the CDs.

The detective told Pyke that he could identify three packages he retrieved for court, which were purported to contain CDs with images of the crime scene. He could not speak to the contents definitively, having not prepared them himself. A detective constable who prepared the CDs is no longer serving in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

The witness said also that his office was not in possession of a special software that can be used to view the files on the CD.

“We are not in possession of that software,” the witness said, adding that all searches to locate the working copy of the crime scene CD have been exhausted.

Pyke asked him if there were any laptops or other devices at his office that could view the files and the detective said, “At my office, no.”

The prosecutor further asked him if there was any way for his office to obtain a software that can view the contents on the disk.

“Maybe not that software but there is a process to undertake to procure such a software or any software that will enable or give access to that image. No, I cannot speak to the possibility of that software being obtained,” the detective said.

During cross-examination, Wildman asked the detective to confirm whether he had anything to do with the investigation of the matter. The detective said, “Not at all.”

Wildman asked him how he came to write a statement having not had anything to do with the matter.

The detective told the court that Pkye caused him to write statements.

“She reached out to my supervisor who gave her my number and as a result she made mention via telephone conversation of a case involving the detective constable who prepared the CD. I recall telling her that I had nothing to do with the investigation of this matter. I wrote two statements. The first one was sometime in February or March this year and the second statement was written last week Friday. That statement was written at the request of Miss Pyke.”

Attorney John Jacobs got the detective to explain that although he could identify the handwriting of the detective constable who wrote on the envelopes purported to contain CDs, he did not see him label them.

On trial for murder in relation to the deaths of Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer and Mark Allen 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.

The three were killed on January 12, 2013 on Acadia Drive in St Andrew during an alleged shootout with the police. A fourth person was said to have escaped.