Firestorm over dead witness’s statement dominates Klans trial for second day

THE defence in the ongoing trial of 25 alleged members of the so-called Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman Gang on Wednesday redoubled its efforts to prevent the prosecution from having the statement of a dead woman tendered into evidence, charging that the identity of the woman was in serious doubt.

The Crown has been calling witnesses to satisfy the legal requirements of a Section 31 (D) application under the Evidence Act to allow it to introduce statements as evidence in court when the witness cannot testify live — usually due to death, illness, being abroad, or being unable to be found after reasonable efforts. The offences are contained in counts 15 and 16 of the indictment.

The witness in this instance, a woman known as Shanice Roberts, died in February 2021, but had provided a statement to cops ahead of her demise regarding the Friday, February 7, 2020 murder of a man called Noah Smith at Yarico Place in St Andrew.

The accused — Michael Wildman, Jerome Spike, Nashuan Guest, and Geovaughni McDonald — are being tried for “knowingly facilitating the commission” of the robbery and murder.

On Wednesday, the evidence of a detective constable who had been the one to record Roberts’ statement on the night of the incident came in for considerable scrutiny by defence attorney Denise Hinson who represents Guest, during cross-examination. Hinson contended that the photo of a woman which has been entered as an exhibit and which the cop had identified on Monday as the woman he spoke to the night of the murder was not “one and the same person”. The detective constable had told the Crown during his evidence in chief that he would be able to recognise Roberts if he saw her again by her “facial features”, which he said was marked by “a very small nose”. The defence, in battling to keep the woman’s statement out of the trial, has insisted that the photo was too blurry for him to even see her nose.

Hinson was unsuccessful in her efforts to prove that the name of the woman identified by the cop was spelt differently from what was on the court’s records. The Prosecution, however, said the spelling was “of no moment” as the “nexus” being established is that “the same person who has died is one and the same as the person in the photograph”.

Justice Dale Palmer, in ruling on the matter, noted that recalling a witness only to speak to the spelling of the name “doesn’t go to the truth of whether or not this is in fact Shanice Roberts”.

“It might not take us anywhere,” he pointed out before sometime later noting: “How does the spelling assist us in one way or the other even if it was a clear image?”

With the indications by the judge that no witness will be recalled for the purpose of responding to Hinson’s challenge of the name spelling, the prosecution said it will on Monday indicate whether it will make further submissions on the application. Hinson and attorney Sasha-Kay Shaw who had made objections to the application are expected to make written submissions.

In the meantime, the Crown successfully applied for an amendment to counts three and four of its indictment despite strenuous objections by the defence. The amendment said the date recorded as being the time of the offence was incorrect. The defence had contended that the accused named on the count, Tesha Miller, Rolando Jermaine Hall and Michael Wildman would be prejudiced.

Justice Palmer, however, said while he took note of the objections, said there was no dispute about the date during cross examination by the defence of the sole witness brought on those counts so far. Furthermore, in ruling that the application was “made sufficiently early in the trial” he noted further that he saw “no prejudice to the defendants” as the attorneys have more than adequate time to prepare their defence.

They all glibly responded “not guilty” when they were re-pleaded on the amended counts .

The matter resumes today.