Judge Sonia Bertram-Linton is expected to rule Friday on what action, if any, she will take after defence attorney Hugh Wildman told prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke to “shut up” during the trial of six cops charged with murder.

The judge spent roughly two hours in chambers with defence attorneys Thursday after the terse exchange. That was after she reprimanded Wildman, who insisted that he was being disturbed by Pyke while he was on his feet addressing the court.

The events unfolded in the presence of the seven-member jury.

The incident began when Wildman was in the process of raising an objection to questions Pyke put to an officer of the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) regarding what could be seen from a Luxury Vale Apartment complex on Acadia Drive in Barbican St Andrew.

However, Wildman sprang to his feet to object to the line of questioning, telling Judge Bertram-Linton that the witness was not allowed to give that kind of testimony because it would amount to hearsay evidence, among other issues. As the defence attorney addressed the judge, loud utterances could be heard from Pyke, who was seated behind Wildman.

A peeved Wildman told Pyke to be quiet in a manner that was deemed offensive by the judge, who then adjourned the case. When the matter resumed, Bertram-Linton addressed the seven members of the jury, telling them to return on Friday, when she is expected to indicate what steps she would take next.

On trial for murder in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston 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 Indecom. In addition to Wildman, their attorneys are Althea Grant-Coppin and John Jacobs.

The trial is in relation to the shooting death of three men on January 12, 2013. The dead men are Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer, and Mark Allen.

It is alleged that they were killed during a shoot-out with the police and two firearms seized. A fourth man was said to have escaped on Evans Avenue, which intersects with Acadia Drive.

The apartment complex at the centre of contention was where Minister of Agriculture Floyd Green lived at the time of the incident. Green is one of two alleged eyewitnesses in the case, even though he did not see the exact moments when any of the men were shot. He claimed that he witnessed some of the activities during and after gunfire subsided.

The minister lived on the top floor of the three-storey apartment complex and claimed that he witnessed certain aspects of the incident from his bedroom window.