DEFENCE attorneys on Wednesday took shots at the credibility of Agriculture Minister Floyd Green in the Home Circuit Court murder trial of six cops, but he held his composure on the witness stand.

On trial for murder are Sergeant Simroy Mott and Corporal Donovan Fullerton, along with 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.

They are being tried for murder in relation to the January 12, 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer, and Mark Allen on Acadia Drive, St Andrew. The three men were said to have been killed in a shoot-out with the police. A fourth man was said to have escaped. Two illegal firearms were allegedly seized.

Green is one of two alleged eyewitnesses to certain aspects of events surrounding the shooting, which the minister claimed to have seen from his bedroom window.

John Jacobs, a member of the defence team, which also comprises Hugh Wildman and Althea Grant-Coppin, cross-examined the minister on whether he was being truthful about what he said he saw on the day of the incident.

Jacobs asked Green if he recalled telling the court that he saw a man of Indian descent with what appeared to be car papers in his hand outside a blue Mitsubishi Outlander motor vehicle.

The minister affirmed.

The attorney asked for the court registrar to bring up an exhibit for the witness and the jurors to view. Jacobs directed the minister’s attention to the general area surrounding the motor vehicle and asked Green whether he saw anything resembling car papers anywhere around.

Green said, “No,” prompting the attorney to ask the minister whether he was still maintaining his stance that an Indian man was seen with what appeared to be car papers in his hand outside the car.

“On the day in question, when I looked out the window, I saw an Indian man standing by the passenger side next to the car, and as I stipulated, with papers in his hand which I assumed were car papers,” the minister explained.

But the attorney suggested to the minister that he was not being truthful.

“I have been absolutely truthful to this court,” Green said.

The minister was also asked to show the court in a photograph where he said he saw a man in a white shirt sitting on the ground in the road.

The minister pointed to the back of the Mitsubishi Outlander and said the man was sitting somewhere to the back of the vehicle.

Jacobs asked the witness to look at a photograph and to say whether he saw any discolouration in the general area where he said the man in the white shirt was sitting behind the Outlander in the road.

“I don’t see any discolouration,” Green said.

The lawyer pointed the minister to a sidewalk to the left of the vehicle that was parked close to the intersection of Acadia Drive and Evans Avenue and asked whether Green saw discolouration or red substance resembling blood there.

The minister said, “Yes,” he saw discolouration on the sidewalk.

Jacobs suggested to Green that the man in the white shirt was not in the road behind the vehicle, but on the sidewalk to the left of the vehicle which was parked facing Barbican Road with the two front doors wide open.

“That was not where I saw the man,” Green said.

Jacobs asked Green if based on where the discolouration on the sidewalk was, if he was willing to agree that the car would have obstructed his view from his bedroom window on the top floor of the apartment.

Green said that because the apartment is at an elevation there was nothing that obstructed his view.

“I am suggesting to you, Mr Green, that you are not being truthful when you say you saw the man in the white shirt in the road,” Jacobs told the minister.

Green responded saying, “I am being truthful. When I saw the man with the white shirt he was in the road.”

Jacobs asked the minister to look at more photographs of the scene and to tell the court if he could see another discolouration on the sidewalk, close to the left front passenger door.

“I do,” Green said.

Jacobs probed whether that was the spot where Green said he saw the Indian man on the ground.

“The Indian man was in the vicinity of the car. He was pulled out of the car and when I saw him he was on the ground. I can’t tell you the exact place. I saw his body on the ground around here,” Green said using a computer mouse to point a cursor to the general location of the left front passenger door.

The attorney tackled the witness on whether he had earlier made markings on exhibits, pointing to the exact location where he said he saw the Indian man on the ground.

The minister said that the mark was not placed at an exact location but a general one.

“I can only speak to areas which I observed,” Green said.

The trial continues today.