JUSTICE Dale Palmer on Monday brought the gavel down, ending several bouts of arguments and counterarguments between the Crown and defence in the ongoing Klansman gang trial, clearing the way for the statement of a dead witness to be accepted as evidence.

The witness, Shaniece Roberts, died in February 2021 from health complications, but had provided a statement to cops ahead of her passing regarding the Friday, February 7, 2020 murder of a man called Noah Smith at Yarico Place in St Andrew. The accused — Michael Wildman, Jerome Spike, Nashuan Guest, and Geovaughni McDonald — are standing trial in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court for “knowingly facilitating the commission” of that murder and robbery.

The Crown, in a protracted Section 31(D) application under the Evidence Act which was vigorously opposed by the defence, had to satisfy the trial judge, among other things, that the woman who died was one and the same as the woman who provided the statement to police, and that the statement was admissible.

In deciding to admit the statement Monday, Justice Palmer said the real issue was whether the statutory requirements under Section 31 (D) had been met, and even if met, whether there is any sufficient basis for the court to exercise its statutory discretion under Section 31 (L) of the Evidence Act or its inherent discretion to exclude the statement.

“While some of the matters raised are important for the court to bear in mind when considering what weight and value to give this statement, and in determining what redactions, if any, need to be made of it or any directions or caution the court may need to give to itself, they do not undermine the statutory basis for admissibility of the statement,” the trial judge pointed out.

“I do not believe this is an appropriate matter in which the court’s statutory or other discretion to exclude the statement should be invoked. I, therefore, order that the statement — subject to any necessary editing and subject to the court’s continuing control over the use and weight to be applied to it — be admitted into evidence.”

In acknowledging arguments raised by the defence regarding a variance in the spelling given by the detective constable who recorded Roberts’s statement, and the spelling supplied to the court by a close acquaintance of the dead woman, Justice Palmer said while “it is true that the spelling discrepancy is a matter to be considered…it does not automatically defeat admissibility”.

“The critical question is not whether the spelling is identical but whether the totality of the evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that the deceased person and the maker of the statement are one and the same,” Justice Palmer said. “I, therefore, rule that the Crown has established that Shaniece Roberts is dead, they have established beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a statement taken from that Shaniece Roberts by Detective Constable [name withheld].

“I find that both persons, S-h-a-n-i-c-e and S-h-a-n-i-e-c-e Roberts are one and the same and that any issues relating to differences in spelling and gender are matters that go to weight and not the admissibility of the statement. The nexus, having been established beyond a reasonable doubt, the remaining issue is whether it should be excluded for the myriad reasons stated in line with the court’s statutory discretion or any of its other inherent power,” the trial judge added, while pointing out that among the safeguards is the power of the court to revisit its position on the use of the statement admitted in these circumstances.

“The defence still has the power to use tools [available to it under the legislation] to discredit this particular statement or witness,” he said.

The statement will be read into the records on Tuesday morning when the matter resumes as the defence was given the opportunity to make suggestions for edits to remove anything “inflammatory”.

The 25 accused, said to comprise the Tesha Miller-led faction of the gang, are the second faction of the gang to now be tried by the courts. They 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.