AN officer of the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) invoked the name of Jesus on Wednesday during cross-examination in the murder trial of six cops in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Hugh Wildman, one of three defence attorneys representing the cops, was conducting the cross-examination of the witness, during which the Indecom officer was asked about conversations he possibly had recently with prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke.

A prosecutor is not allowed to communicate with witnesses while they are giving evidence in a trial. Wildman did not make it clear whether he had confirmation that inappropriate communication might have taken place.

“In the name of Jesus, don’t do that Mr Wildman,” the Indecom officer said, insisting that he and Pyke have not been communicating since he took the witness stand.

He also denied a suggestion that, together with Pyke, he recently tried to gain access to an apartment on Acadia Drive in St Andrew, where Agriculture Minister Floyd Green lived in 2013. Green and another individual who lived at the apartment complex in 2013 claimed they were eyewitnesses to events surrounding the police killing of three men in an alleged shootout on January 12 that year.

Green, who lived on the third floor of a three-storey building inside the Luxury Vale Apartment complex on Acadia Drive, claimed that he saw the events from a window in his bedroom.

In order to try to get a possible view of what Green could have seen on the day in question and from the angle the minister said he witnessed it, the Indecom officer and the prosecutor have made numerous visits to the specific apartment.

However, the officer insisted that since he began his testimony, he again sought to gain entry to the apartment, but not with Pyke and not at her request.

He admitted that this week, he reached out to the current occupants of the apartment seeking permission to enter, but was refused entry.

“I did not tell Miss Pyke that I was refused entry but I told my colleague [at Indecom]. I made a phone call to the resident and the person said they would not be facilitating us anymore. The resident said she did not want any invasion of privacy,” the officer told the court.

Wildman asked him if he was sure that after the resident told him no, he didn’t call Pyke to inform her.

“No, I did not call Miss Pyke. I did not speak to Miss Pyke. Since giving my evidence, I have not spoken to Miss Pyke,” he said.

The Indecom officer told the court that in 2013 when the incident occurred, he played various roles as part of a team investigating the matter. In 2015, he took over the case as lead investigator for Indecom.

According to the officer, the apartment became relevant to him around 2015 or 2016 during witness canvassing.

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 Indecom.

Justice Sonia Bertram-Linton is the presiding judge in the matter.

The other attorneys representing the cops are John Jacobs and Althea Grant-Coppin.

Cygale Pennant is Pyke’s junior from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The trial resumes today.