The 12-member jury in the trial of six police officers accused of murdering three friends from Moruga in 2011 has been advised on how to consider the claims made by a police officer, who was initially charged before agreeing to a deal with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
High Court Judge Carla Brown-Antoine dealt with the evidence given by WPC Nicole Clement yesterday as she continued to summarise the evidence and legal issues in the case to the jury in the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain.
Clement refused to testify at the trial due to alleged “safety and security concerns”. She was deemed a hostile witness and her testimony during the preliminary inquiry of the case was read to the jury.
Clement initially claimed that Kerron Eccles and Alana Duncan survived the volley of gunshots she and her colleagues unleashed on the car they were travelling in at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore on July 22, 2011. Abigail Johnson died at the scene.
She claimed she and three of her colleagues took Eccles and Duncan to a remote road off the M2 Ring Road in Woodland where they were shot before all three were taken to Princes Town Health Facility.
Clement also sought to detail the steps she and her colleagues allegedly took to cover up the crime, including rehearsing their version of the events and writing consistent statements.
During the trial, the jury also heard that months before she was due to testify, Clement sent a letter to DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, indicating her reluctance to testify.
She also provided a statement in which she gave an alternative version of the events and claimed she threatened her colleagues to execute Eccles and Duncan after the initial shooting.
Justice Brown-Antoine advised the jury to approach Clement’s evidence with special care and caution as they had to determine whether she had a motive to lie about her former co-workers. She also advised them not to draw conclusions about the accused officers based on Clement’s reason for refusing to testify in the trial.
“Do not come to an adverse conclusion against the accused based on her saying she had safety concerns or that they are guilty because she had safety concerns,” Justice Brown-Antoine said.
The judge also indicated that the jurors had to consider whether Clement’s claims were corroborated by other evidence presented before them.
“You are entitled to reject all of it ... If you do, you must put it aside. You are entitled to believe her evidence in whole or in part,” she said.
Justice Brown-Antoine also gave the jury a synopsis of the evidence of other police officers, who testified about their role in the investigation and their views on the officers’ professional reputations.
She is expected to continue summing up today before the jury is allowed to deliberate on the officers’ guilt or innocence tomorrow.
Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, and Antonio Ramadin are being represented by Israel Khan, SC, Ulric Skerritt, and Arissa Maharaj.
The case is being prosecuted by Gilbert Peterson, SC, Elaine Greene, Giselle Ferguson-Heller and Katiesha Ambrose-Persadsingh.