A former detective constable, during his testimony in court via video link on Monday, asserted that he could not verify whether a bullet spent casing which was taken from an envelope was the same one he packaged and transported to the government forensic lab to be tested.

His testimony was given during the murder trial of six policemen in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston. The cops are on trial in relation to the January 12, 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Mark Allen, and Ucliffe Dyer on Acadia Drive in St Andrew.

The witness, who left the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and took up another job overseas, watched keenly as one of numerous envelopes he submitted in 2013 was being unsealed in the presence of the seven member jury.

After the first package was unsealed, a spent casing was removed and shown to the witness.

While the witness confirmed that the handwriting on the envelope was his, he told the court that “it seems the envelope was opened and resealed” by the forensic lab, indicating that he could not definitively say that the spent shell was the same one he took from the scene, packed and transported to the lab.

Before a second envelope with evidence was opened, the witness confirmed the handwriting on it was his and that he labelled the envelope in the course of investigations.

While describing the contents that was removed from that envelope, the witness said, “The item resembles a piece of lead”.

Prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke requested that another set of envelopes containing DVDs be shown to the witness for identification purposes. The DVDs contained images of the scene and evidence that the detective said he captured at the scene.

The unveiling of the first DVD caused contention after Pyke asked for it to be placed inside the computer in the courtroom and its contents shown to the witness.

Defence attorneys objected to the request.

Attorney Hugh Wildman, who is representing four of the six cops, contended that the witness is no longer a member of the JCF and was not an expert and should not be allowed to give expert evidence in relation to the DVD.

The main contention raised by the defence team, which also includes John Jacobs and Althea Grant-Coppin, were issues surrounding the software that should be used to view the images.

The witness told the court that his mission overseas prevents him from appearing in person during the trial. He was given the go-ahead to testify via video link following a successful special measures application.

He was asked by the prosecutor to say whether he could recall where he was on the day of the incident. He began to refer directly to what he wrote in his statement in 2013, which prompted the defence team to object on the grounds he was on the witness stand to say what he recalled and not what he put in his statement.

The witness responded saying, “I cannot remember what I did 13 years ago. I can only reference my statement which I wrote. I made notes at the scene. We preserve memory by writing statements and that is why I refer to my statement and not memory”.

“This statement refreshes my memory on what I wrote but not what I did on that particular day,” he added.

He said that numerous evidential material were taken from the scene and packaged, including spent casings, blood samples, a peak cap, a lighter and a portion of what he said appeared to be a belt.

All the evidence he collected, were taken back to his office, before being brought to the government forensic lab for scrutiny.

On trial for murder 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 trial resumes today.