STRENUOUS objections were raised by defence attorneys on Monday to prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke being allowed to insert a new exhibit in the murder trial of six policemen, after the cross-examination of a witness was complete.

The policemen are on trial for the January 12, 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer and Mark Allen. The men were shot and killed on Acadia Drive in St Andrew during an alleged shoot-out with the police.

The witness, a former detective constable, was responsible for photographing the scene and packaging evidence which he collected. He is no longer serving in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and was allowed to testify via video link because he is currently serving in the United States military and undergoing a promotional programme which prevents him from travelling at this time.

Attorney Hugh Wildman, who is representing four of the six cops, sprung to his feet to object to Pyke’s request for the exhibit — a brown package purported to contain bloody clothing belonging to the deceased — to be displayed in court and marked as an exhibit.

“Milady, I am objecting strenuously to all of this. Talking about wasting time, my learned friend had three days to get her evidence in. We have less than a day, a couple hours [with this witness]. My friend spoke about wasting time. She, my learned friend, cannot now get a second bite of the cherry.

“We are opposed to going over a re-examination to put in what she did not. It is her fault. I will say that we strongly oppose that. You put up, or shut up. You cannot now have a second bite of the cherry. We have little time…I am saying that there is no basis in law and I am asking you not to exercise a discretion to allow the prosecutor to reopen the examination-in-chief,” Wildman said in his appeal to trial judge Sonia Bertram-Linton, which was eventually rejected, allowing Pyke to show the package to the witness and the jurors.

Althea Grant-Coppin, who represents one of the cops, joined in on the objection from Wildman.

John Jacobs, the attorney representing another of the policemen, expressed that showing the material to the jurors would only serve to inflame them as there was no probative value in it. Wildman had earlier raised the same objection, saying there was no probative value.

After the brown package was shown to the witness for him to identify it and for it be admitted as evidence, Wildman presented a stumbling block for the prosecutor. The attorney contended that the former detective had already indicated that he would not be able to definitively say if the contents of the brown parcel were the same ones he had packaged for transportation to the government forensic lab for testing.

With that said, the package was not allowed to be unsealed.

Justice Bertram-Linton explained her reason for allowing the sealed package to be admitted although it was done just before the witness was released by the court.

The trial judge agreed with the defence that showing the sealed package to the witness wouldn’t move the case much further, but she also said agreed with Pyke that doing so would not prejudice the accused men.

The judge asserted that she had to balance the criteria contained in law. She explained that the law says prejudice outweighs probative value, but she was not sure how it would prejudice the defendants.

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.

It is alleged that cops were conducting an operation when they signalled to the driver of a blue Mitsubishi Outlander motor vehicle to stop. It is further alleged that the driver was initially hesitant to stop but when he did, men alighted from the vehicle and challenged the police in a gunfight, during which three of the occupants — Lee, Dyer and Allen — were cut down.

The trial resumes today.