Judge to rule on keeping witness’s evidence in murder case against cops

The judge in the trial of six policemen accused of murder has reserved her decision on whether she will allow the evidence of a key prosecution witness.

The media has been barred from disclosing the name of the female witness.

Hugh Wildman, the attorney representing one of the policemen, filed an application asking presiding Judge Sonia Bertram Linton to omit the evidence of the witness from the trial.

The attorneys for two other defendants adopted Wildman’s submissions.

The application was made after the witness testified that she met with lead prosecutor Kathy-Ann Pyke in the presence of another witness on the Supreme Court building last week after the trial had already commenced.

Prosecutors objected to the application.

Bertram Linton indicated yesterday that she will give her decision when the trial resumes in the next court term, or the Easter Term, which begins next month.

The current Hilary Term ends on March 27.

The policemen, Sergeant Simroy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton, and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose and Richard Lynch are on trial for the shooting deaths of Mark Allen, Matthew Lee and Ucliffe Dyer along Acadia Drive in St Andrew on January 12, 2013.

The female eyewitness has already testified that she saw police personnel chasing one of the men who exited a vehicle with his hands raised, ran and jumped a wall before he was shot to death.

The witness, who testified that she observed parts of the incident from the window of her third-floor apartment, said she also saw two other men.

One was standing outside a Mitsubishi Outlander with what appeared to be paper in his hand and another was sitting towards the back of the vehicle, she said during her testimony.

She said she later saw both men lying lifeless on the ground.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com