By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE CROWN will be relying on circumstantial evidence and common design to prove the seven-year-old murder case against Leacroft Livingston, 45-year-old cable service operator, and his wife Beverly.
Both are charged with the murder of Robert Palmer, 20, of Greater Portmore, St. Catherine and Craig Constable, of a Kingston address.
The Crown is alleging at the trial in the Home Circuit Court that the men were killed in the couple's home at 7 Valentine Drive, St. Andrew between April 13 and 14, 1996. The bodies with the hands and feet tied and the mouths gagged were found in a precipice off the Rock Hall main road on April 14, 1996.
Kathy Pyke, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, in outlining the Crown's case yesterday said the Crown would be relying on circumstantial evidence to prove its case. She said that the two men frequented the home of the two accused. She said the men met their death between April 13 and 14, 1996 and were last seen watching television in the Livingstons' living room.
Miss Pyke said that although the Crown's case was one of circumstantial evidence, the Crown was going to put before the jury a series of facts and coincidences and the combination would leave them with one conclusion which was that the men were murdered by the Livingstons. She said blood was found at the Livingstons' home, blood was found in the car and blood was found on a settee. She asked the jury to pay attention to the evidence which would include scientific evidence.
COMMON DESIGN
"The Crown's case also is one where we speak of common design. We are saying that these two accused acted together in causing the deaths of the two deceased. They had to get rid of the two deceased who took up residence in their home," Miss Pyke told the jury.
Cecil Whyte, the first witness called by the Crown told Justice Mahadev Dukharan and the jury that at about 10:45 a.m. on April 14 he was walking along the Rock Hall main road when he saw blood stains on the embankment. He looked over the precipice and saw the bodies of two men. He said he went to the Red Hills Police Station and reported the matter.
