‘Not spending Christmas in here’, judge tells jurors in cops’ murder trial

Judge Sonia Bertram-Linton indicated on Wednesday that she has no intention of sitting in the Home Circuit Court murder trial of six cops until December, hinting to the seven members of the jury that she believes the matter has been dragging on for too long.

While her hands were forced in terms of approving some future breaks due to important commitments involving parties in the matter, Bertram-Linton was not excited about the idea of the case going up to Christmas and possibly beyond.

The trial began in January, and nine months later, those involved in the case have no clue when it will end.

“We are trying as much as possible to use important commitments to allow people to be able to do what they have to do,” Bertram-Linton said. However, she added, “We don’t want to see Christmas here.”

The trial of the six policemen resumed on Wednesday after a lengthy break, with a former assistant investigator of the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) beginning and completing his testimony in the case.

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

The former Indecom employee told the court that he joined Indecom in April 2014, more than a year after the incident, and was given tasks to carry out in relation to the investigation into the shooting deaths of the three men.

“I mainly assisted with investigations, attended to tasks assigned by my supervisor including the recording of witness statements, extraction of station diary entries and other tasks during the investigative process,“ he said, explaining that he conducted interviews, extracted diary entries from the Constant Spring Police Station and recorded interview information. He also photographed the diary entries related to the case, before he returned to his office at Indecom.

Asked by prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke to explain the next step after photographs of diary entries are taken, he said that the pictures are usually printed and attached to case files for future viewing by investigators and people being interviewed.

He was also asked if he was recently shown the photographs of the diary entry and he said yes.

According to the witness, an investigator connected to the case visited him and showed him the photographs, which he indicated could be recognised if shown to him in court.

During cross-examination, defence attorney Hugh Wildman pressed the witness on whether or not statements given to Indecom must be signed by a justice of the peace. He indicated that it wasn’t done in all cases, which prompted Wildman to tell him that when he was at Indecom he was doing “all sorts of nonsense”.

The witness responded, accusing the attorney of being misguided.

Wildman asked the witness if he collected a statement from Agriculture Minister Floyd Green in relation to the case. He confirmed that he collected the statement from the minister, and also said that the statement was not given in the presence of a justice of the peace. He explained that based on his understanding of Section 21 of the Indecom Act, it was not a requirement for him to receive it in the presence of a justice of the peace. He also explained that he collected a statement from another witness that was not taken in the presence of a justice of the peace.

Bertram-Linton, meanwhile, explained that the trial would go on for the rest of this week; however, it will break for a week, starting next Monday, due to juror commitments. There will be a further break during the week of October 12, to facilitate the defence.

On trial for murder are Sergeant Simroy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose, and Richard Lynch. Corporal Fullerton is also charged with making a false statement to Indecom.