The prosecution in the ongoing trial of 25 alleged members of the supposed Tesha Miller-led faction of the Klansman Gang on Tuesday prevailed on sitting judge Justice Dale Palmer to order defence attorneys to rein in their clients.

“Milord, I have a concern, I’ve noticed each time the Crown [makes a submission] there is a chorus of murmurs from the dock and certain expressions. I would ask that counsel rein in their clients Milord because I find it rather unsettling in the face of the court to be doing that,” stated the lead prosecutor who has been marshalling the evidence.

In responding to the concern, Justice Palmer who is trying the judge-alone matter said, “Not even counsel ought to be doing that in the hearing of the court and certainly [it] will not be countenanced from the dock either. I expect counsel can have words with their clients”.

In further chiding the accused the even-tempered jurist said, “They can speak with their counsel. There doesn’t need to be a chorus of remarks; it is certainly undesirable.”

When senior defence attorney Paul Gentles apologised and indicated to the court that the defendants would be cautioned, Justice Palmer said, “It is accepted Counsel and it is certainly assumed that it is not being encouraged by Counsel.”

“Not being familiar with court procedures, I know sometimes the uninitiated lay persons may do things that would not normally be countenanced by the court,” Justice Palmer continued.

A chorus of grumbles and teeth hissing had registered the discontent of some of the defendants to indications from the prosecution that a witness who was the forensic crime scene investigator who processed the scene of an August 14, 2017 murder in St Andrew would be completing his evidence in May, given some technical issues that had surfaced with material to which he was to speak.

That evidence is linked to counts five and six of the indictment which charges the accused Tesha Miller, Rolando Jermaine Hall and Michael Wildman with the murder of Kevin Green in one instance and the wounding with intent of Andre Anderson in another.

On Tuesday the defendants following the Crown’s submissions on the matter made no effort to hide their feelings, their faces contorted in disgust.

In the meantime more details emerged as the prosecution continued to unfold its case against the accused — Michael Wildman, Jerome Spike, Nashuan Guest, and Geovaughni McDonald — for “knowingly facilitated the commission” of the 2020 robbery and murder of a man called Noah Smith in St Andrew. The offences are contained in counts 15 and 16 of the indictment brought by the Crown.

On Tuesday morning an acquaintance of Smith taking the stand struggled to hold back tears as he recounted his March 9, 2020 visit to a Kingston morgue where he identified Smith’s body.

“I know him from a baby,” he said, sighing heavily, clenching his jaws and blinking rapidly to hold tears at bay.

He lost that battle when asked how Smith appeared on that occasion.

“He was lying on his back with a gunshot wound to his forehead. [His] front teeth was licked out. He was there lying down lifeless,” the witness, closing his eyes and sniffling, said some moments later.

Handed a photograph of Smith to say whether he was the same individual he had identified, the witness took one look, immediately turned the document face down and blurted, “As I said, I know him from birth, so I know his face!”

“Yes, yes this is Andy (alias) Noah Smith,” he said tremulously moments later.

In the meantime mystery still shrouds the Crown’s case on the count, with no evidence yet mounted as to the circumstances behind Smith’s death or even who he was.

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.