Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter 
May 2003 file photo of police investigators at a house in Kraal, Clarendon, where four persons were killed during a police operation.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE was given this week by both local and foreign forensic scientists at the trial of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the five policemen charged with the murder of four civilians at Kraal on May 7, 2003.
Government ballistics expert Daniel Wray testified in the Home Circuit Court that when he visited the crime scene at Kraal, Clarendon he saw 12 bullet holes in the front door and he formed the opinion that 10 shots were fired from outside in while the others were fired from inside out.
Robin Keely, a forensic scientist from the United Kingdom said he conducted tests on the clothes of the four deceased and came to the conclusion that some of the 'victims' must have been shot at close range.
Objections by defence lawyers prevented Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey from saying what he overheard East Kingston businessman Danhai Williams saying on his cellular phone on the evening of May 7, 2003 when he received a telephone call.
The trial began on October 31 and up to Thursday, the prosecution had called a total of 31 witnesses.
RESPONSIBLE MEDIA
On Monday Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe implored the media to be more responsible and accurate in the reporting of the case because if the situation continued then he would exclude the media from the trial. The Chief Justice issued the warning when Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions, complained about the headline in The Gleaner on Saturday about the trial. The Chief Justice said he read the report and did not find any inaccuracy in the story itself. The Chief Justice referred to the report in the Jamaica Observer and said reference was made to the 'bugging' of telephone when the word 'bugging' was not mentioned in court.
Wray who is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police said he visited the scene and made notes and observations. He described numerous bullet holes he saw at the house. He said the front door had 10 holes and were of the 5.56 mm size bullets.
He said the holes were in the direction of outside towards inside and went through what could have been a closed door. He said he saw two holes of 7.62 mm size and those were in the direction of inside the room towards the outside.
He said he examined a breadfruit tree in the yard and noticed that there was a track across the trunk which was consistent with a bullet 'tracing' across the trunk. When asked the size of the firearm bullet track, he said it was larger than the M16 so it could be of the 7.62 calibre. He said further that his opinion in relation to the track of the bullet was that the height of the track was consistent with the two holes through the front room of the door.
WINCHESTER RIFLE TESTED
On being shown a Winchester rifle which policemen from the Scene of Crime Unit found inside the house, Wray said he conducted tests on the Winchester rifle and the tests indicated that it was fired recently and could have been fired on May 7, 2003.
Wray said in his evidence that he examined a .45 pistol and M16 rifle that were assigned to SSP Adams and came to the conclusion that they were not fired recently and could not have been fired during the shooting incident at Kraal on May 7, 2003.
He said he carried out tests on the 9mm Taurus semi automatic pistol found at the crime scene at Kraal and found that it had been recently fired and could have been fired on May 7, 2003.
Detective Sergeant Calbert Davis said that he went to Kraal about 9:20 p.m. on May 7, 2003. He said he saw Adams there and he told him that he had received information that gunmen were at a particular premises waiting to kill white men who were working at the gold mine.
Adams said he and his team proceeded to the premises and shouted "police". They were greeted with gunfire from the house. The police returned the fire and about six men were seen running to the rear of the premises.
After the shooting subsided, four persons were found suffering form gunshot wounds. Sgt. Davis said Adams did not say which part of the house the gunshots were coming from. He said he made a record of what Adams told him.
Robin Keely, a senior forensic scientist from the United Kingdom said he conducted tests on the clothes of the four deceased and found firearm discharge residue on them. He said it was his conclusion that some of the victims must have been shot at close range and that was within a distance of two or three metres.
Kelly said he also conducted tests to find out how the firearm residue was deposited.
The defence lawyers objected to that evidence being given because it would be of no value if other weapons were used instead of those allegedly fired at the crime scene.
The Chief Justice asked if the tests were conducted with the weapons that were allegedly used in the shooting incident.
GUNSHOT RESIDUE
Prosecutor Terrence Williams said the weapons used to conduct the test were of similar manufacture, but the Chief Justice said he was not going to allow it because "it does not relate to the weapons allegedly used at Kraal."
Under cross-examination, Keely was asked if a gun was being fired and a person was standing nearby, but was not the object at which the gun was being fired, if the gunshot residue could come in contact with their clothing and Keely said it was possible. He agreed that it was possible that firearm residue could be transferred if each time the bodies were taken out of a refrigerator they came in contact with a contaminated surface.
The Chief Justice on Thursday urged the prosecution to call the witnesses in a logical sequence when defence lawyers objected to the evidence that Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey was going to give as to what he heard east Kingston businessman Danhai Williams saying on his cellular phone on May 7, 2003.
DANHAI WILLIAMS VISIT
Pusey testified on Wednesday that he was at the office of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF) when Sgt. Que Facey spoke to him. After that Facey and Constable Thompson left in a minibus which was used for covert purposes.
He said in the evening, he was at his office when Danhai Williams visited him. He was speaking with Williams when his (Williams) phone ran and he Williams walked away a few metres from him. "There was an inaudible conversation and I heard him say...." Pusey was not able to complete the sentence because defence lawyer Valerie Neita-Robertson objected on the grounds that it was not said in the presence and hearing of the accused and therefore it had no probative value because Pusey did not know who the other persons were on the telephone.
Prosecutor Terrence Williams said there was already evidence before the court by officer (Tyrone) Brown about going to a certain premises, but the Chief Justice said that had noting to do with the premises which Brown went to. The Chief Justice said further "I don't see what you are saying in the absence of the jury that can make any difference, because what happened at the other place there is no way he can say who Danhai Williams was talking to. The Chief Justice then remarked that the logical sequence must be followed in calling witnesses.
Submissions were made in the absence of the jury and the witness and on resumption, Pusey was further examined. He said he did not have any report of Constable Donovan Thompson being involved with the 'One Order' gang. He said there was a first aid policy in regards to injured people during a shoot-out and it was that the injured must me taken immediately to hospital
Cross-examined by defence lawyer K. Churchill Neita, Q.C., he said he saw Sgt. Facey on the night of May 7, 2003 and he was aware that he and Thompson had gone with a party of policemen headed by SSP Adams, but he did not know where they had gone. He said Sgt. Facey told him that four people were killed at Kraal and two firearms were seized.
Cross-examined by attorney-at-law Valerie Neita Robertson, he said Williams visited him at his office about 7.30 p.m. on May 7, 2003 and the conversation lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. He said SSP Adams had never asked him to send him two intelligence officers. The SACTF from time to time worked with the Crime Management Unit (now disbanded) and it was the SACTF which had the intelligence officers in May 7, 2003.
He said Facey and Thompson were intelligence officers, but in May 2003 they were not part of the intelligence unit. He said he was aware of the existence of Bashington Douglas otherwise called "Chen Chen" and he heard that Douglas was wanted for several offences.
He said Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields came to his office about two times after the Kraal incident and on those occasions he was accompanied by a British person from Scotland Yard.
He denied the suggestion that on three occasions a request was made for him to assist Adams with the operation at Kraal. He said Facey told him he was going out with Adams on May 7, 2003, but he did not ask him where he was going . On being asked if he did not have a good relationship with Adams he replied "I have a very good professional relationship with him.".
NOT ASKED TO DO AUDIT
After the incident at Kraal he said he was not asked to do an audit of all the guns which CMU had and he did not ask Sgt. Dorrett Brown to do an audit to ensure that the guns were in place in safekeeping. It was suggested to him that all the guns were accounted for, but he said he could not say.
The SACTF was set up in 1993 while the CMU was set up in 2000 to operate in conjunction with the SACTF. He said he never told the accused Constable Collier to protect himself with regard to what happened at Kraal. Asked if he intimidated Collier while on parade at SACTF with other officers and he said "I could not, they were my sons."
Defence lawyer Deborah Martin suggested to him that the CMU got quite a bit of media coverage and prominence. He agreed that the CMU was on the radio several times and Adams was interviewed several times. He was asked if Adams being "so constantly highlighted created some concern about the top leadership of the police force." The Chief Justice then asked what was there in Pusey's evidence to show bad blood between himself and Adams or that he gave "this evidence" because of bad blood between them.
Miss Martin said she would abandon that line of questioning at that stage.
Pusey denied the suggestion that he told the accused Constable Collier that he knew what happened at Kraal and Collier replied "you know what I don't know and I was there".
On Thursday Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe said he was not going to expose the jury to evidence that he might have to tell them to discard form their minds.
Phone Record Evidence
The Chief Justice made the comments when the Crown was in the process of applying to put in evidence phone records in respect to calls made to and from a particular phone number on May 7, 2003.
The Chief Justice described the exercise as putting the cart before the horse and said he was not going to allow the evidence in the hope it becomes relevant when the relevant witness comes. "That is not how a trial is conducted," the Chief Justice added.
The objection was taken when Howard Mais, systems administrator from Cable and Wireless was called to testify in relation to phone records in respect to calls made to and from a particular telephone number on May 7, 2003.
One witness from Digicel and two witnesses form Cable and Wireless were bound over to return to court on Monday.
Joseph Dillon, an 88-year-old preacher from Kraal said about 6:00 p.m. on May 7, 2003, he was going go visit a church sister when on passing 'Mas Sonny's house' (where the deceased Angella Richards lived ) he saw "a large-size bike" at the gate . He turned his eyes up the house but he did not see anybody. He continued walking and when he was about three chains from the house he heard some explosions and "I stood up in the road wondering who could be firing at this time." The explosions were coming from Mas Sonny's house because that was the only house in that direction, he said.
Evidence was also given from a farmer, Adrian Fearon, from Kraal, who said he was at the house of the deceased Angella Richards about 5.20 p.m. He said Bashington Douglas otherwise called 'Shortman' and 'Chen Chen' and other persons were at the house. While there he saw a bus 'jam brake' at the gate and a man jumped out of the bus and fired a shot at him. He said he started to run towards the gully and while running shots were being fired at him.
Fearon admitted under cross-examination by defence lawyer Jacqueline Samuels-Brown that he gave a statement on May 17, 2003 in which he said he saw a man hurriedly leave the bus and started to walk towards the house. Asked if 'Shortman' and other persons fired at the police, he said he did not know about that. He said 'Shortman' used to be the watchman for a pump at the gold mine at Kraal.
He denied the suggestion that he and 'Chen Chen' were heard talking the same night after the shooting incident. It was suggested to him by attorney-at-law Oswest Senior-Smith that he told 'Shortman' that he saw when the two boys dem jump out of the van and "that is why mi seh police and fire one out of the piece, but it drop out of mi hand that is why me kick it and give 'Shortman' but he denied the suggestion. He also denied the suggestion that 'Shortman' responded that when he picked up the gun it was only two shots he fired from it and run "because the boy dem a come."
