An analyst from the Government Forensic Laboratory revealed on Tuesday that DNA belonging to an unidentified male was found in the motor vehicle in which Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer and Mark Allen were travelling when they were fatally shot during an alleged confrontation with a police team on January 12, 2013.

The police had reported that a fourth man who was in the car escaped during the incident which occurred on Acadia Drive in Barbican, St Andrew.

According to the police, they were on operation and signalled the driver of a blue Mitsubishi Outlander to stop. The driver allegedly hesitated but eventually stopped. It is alleged that when the vehicle came to a halt, men alighted and challenged the police in a gun battle in which Lee, Dyer and Allen were killed.

The DNA analyst, who is the latest witness in the trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston, told the seven-member jury that after testing the sample referred to as exhibit J, it failed to produce a match.

“Exhibit J, which is a swab allegedly taken from Blue Mitsubishi Outlander had insufficient DNA, therefore failed to produce results for 13 [DNA related] areas tested,” the witness said after confirming that DNA belonging to the three deceased was also found inside the vehicle..

The analyst told the court that while the tests could not produce a match after being run through a DNA database, “We were able however to determine that the limited DNA present was from a male.”

Prosecutor Cygale Pennant, during examination-in-chief, asked the witness to explain what factors could affect DNA markers.

The analyst shared that the swabbing of an item does not guarantee the collection of DNA, unless it is biological fluid such as blood, semen or dried saliva.

“The result obtained from exhibit J indicates there is either insufficient DNA present to produce a DNA profile or the DNA present is so degraded that a DNA profile could not be obtained,” the witness said.

The analyst explained that a particular calculation is used to assess the frequency of DNA components within the population to arrive at a match.

“This frequency is obtained from a random database of random samples from the Jamaican population. These random samples were analysed and the frequency of the DNA components obtained were calculated and used as the Jamaican population database from which the random match probability of a profile obtained can be calculated,” she said.

After exhausting her list, Pennant indicated to the trial Judge, Sonia Bertram-Linton that she had no further questions for the witness. Kathy Ann-Pyke is the lead prosecutor in the case but Pennant was put in charge of marshalling the evidence from this witness for the Crown.

Defence attorneys Hugh Wildman, Althea Grant-Coppin and John Jacobs were set to begin their cross-examination of the witness, however, the matter was adjourned until Wednesday.

On trial for murder are Sergeant Simroy Mott, 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.