INDECOM witness invokes Jesus while denying contact with prosecutor in cops' murder trial

An investigator attached to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) called on Jesus on Wednesday while under cross-examination in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston, where six police officers are standing trial for murder.

Defence counsel Hugh Wildman, one of three lawyers for the accused, was questioning the witness about whether he had spoken recently with prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke. Rules bar a prosecutor from talking to a witness once that witness has begun giving evidence.

Wildman did not say whether he had firm proof that any improper exchange had occurred. The INDECOM officer rejected the suggestion and answered: "In the name of Jesus, don't do that Mr Wildman," maintaining that he and Pyke have had no contact since he entered the witness box.

He also rejected a claim that he and Pyke had lately tried to enter an apartment on Acadia Drive in St Andrew once occupied by Agriculture Minister Floyd Green in 2013. Green and another resident of the complex that year said they saw what happened when police shot and killed three men in what was described as a shootout on January 12, 2013.

Green, who occupied a third-floor unit in a three-storey block at the Luxury Vale Apartment complex on Acadia Drive, said he watched from a bedroom window. The INDECOM officer and the prosecutor have repeatedly visited that flat to assess what Green might have been able to see from that vantage point.

The officer said that after his evidence started he again sought access to the premises, but without Pyke and not because she asked him to. He acknowledged that this week he contacted the people now living there to request entry and was turned away.

"I did not tell Miss Pyke that I was refused entry but I told my colleague [at Indecom]. I made a phone call to the resident and the person said they would not be facilitating us anymore. The resident said she did not want any invasion of privacy," he told the court.

Pressed by Wildman on whether, after that refusal, he telephoned Pyke to update her, he replied: "No, I did not call Miss Pyke. I did not speak to Miss Pyke. Since giving my evidence, I have not spoken to Miss Pyke."

He told the court that when the 2013 incident took place he held several roles on the investigation team. By 2015 he had become INDECOM's lead investigator on the file. The Acadia Drive apartment, he said, first mattered to him around 2015 or 2016 while canvassing for witnesses.

The accused are Sergeant Simroy Mott and Corporal Donovan Fullerton, together with Constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose and Richard Lynch. Fullerton faces an additional count of making a false statement to INDECOM.

Justice Sonia Bertram-Linton is hearing the case. John Jacobs and Althea Grant-Coppin appear with Wildman for the officers. Cygale Pennant is junior counsel to Pyke from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The trial continues today.