THE defence in the murder trial of six cops began its no-case submission on Thursday, with attorney Hugh Wildman raising numerous arguments to trial judge Justice Sonia Bertram-Linton.

Prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke, who since January has marshalled the Crown’s case in the long-running trial, closed her case on Wednesday in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.

The seven-member jury received a break from the case, starting Thursday.

On Wednesday, Bertram-Linton indicated to the jurors that their presence was not required during the no-case submission and subsequently instructed them to return on November 30.

During the no-case submission there will be no media coverage highlighting the arguments put forward to the judge by the defence, which also comprises John Jacobs and Althea Grant-Coppin. The judge will also hear arguments from Pyke.

The six cops are on trial in relation to the January 12, 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer, and Mark Allen in an alleged shoot-out with the police on Acadia Drive in Barbican, St Andrew.

On trial in relation to their deaths 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 (Indecom).

The three men were travelling in a blue Mitsubishi Outlander motor vehicle when the police signalled the driver to stop. It is alleged that the driver initially hesitated to comply, but when he eventually stopped the vehicle, men alighted from it, challenging the police in a gun battle during which they were killed. A fourth man was said to have escaped in a gully at the end of Evans Avenue which forms and intersection with Acadia Drive.

The police reported that two illegal guns were seized.

The final witness to have been called by the prosecution on Wednesday was a policeman assigned to the Technical Services Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. That policeman was not an integral part of the investigative team in the matter but was called by Pyke to identify the signature of another cop who was directly connected to the case.

Pyke sought to have the witness identify selected printed photographs of the crime scene but that attempt was rejected by the trial judge. After that the prosecutor closed her case.

Last week, a witness who purports to be a crime scene reconstruction expert that has been rendering those services for Indecom since 2010, admitted on the witness stand that he is not currently certified in the science of reconstructing crime scenes.

He told the court that although he completed training, the programme was discontinued before certification was issued.

“I took the test, passed the test, then they removed the test,” he said.

The first and main witness when the case got under way in January this year was Minister of Agriculture Floyd Green.

In January 2013 when the incident occurred, Green lived on the top floor of a multi-storey apartment complex on Acadia Drive. He told the court that he was at home when he heard explosions sounding like gunshots which prompted him to go to a window to see what was happening. He told the court that he saw policemen and the now deceased men on the scene. Though he heard explosions and saw certain activities, he told the court that he did not see the exact moments when the men were shot but only when they became motionless on the ground. He also was unable to identify any of the policemen.