DEFENCE LAWYER Valerie Neita-Robertson has called on the 12-member jury to weigh carefully what the cellmates of 24-year-old police Constable Rushon Hamilton said.

She said they had motives to give evidence in the case.

Neita-Robertson, who was addressing the jury yesterday, said the cellmates might have felt that they would get favourable treatment.

She said what the cellmates said Hamilton confessed to them in October 2008 was already in the public domain.

Witnesses had testified at the murder trial in the Home Circuit Court that when they were in custody with Hamilton, he confessed that he shot 14-year-old Jhaneel Goulbourne and threw her body at sea.

Neita-Robertson told the jury that the prosecution did not bring any evidence to verify the so-called confession. She pointed out that the Crown's case was full of holes and called on the jury to return a not-guilty verdict.

Hamilton, who is also being represented by attorney-at-law Peter Champagnie, called three witnesses, one of which was serving a sentence.

The prisoner said he heard two of the Crown's witnesses plotting to frame Hamilton for the girl's murder.

NOTHING TO GAIN

Neita-Robertson called on the jury to believe the defence witness because he was leaving prison next month and had nothing to gain.

The Crown, represented by prosecutors Lisa Palmer Hamilton, Sasha Marie Smith and Alwayne Smith, is alleging that Hamilton abducted and murdered Goulbourne. The girl was standing at her gate in Harbour View, St Andrew, on October 24, 2008, when she was abducted.

Hamilton was charged with carnal abuse of the girl at the time she went missing. The body has not been found.

The trial resumes on Monday, when Palmer Hamilton will address the jury.

Justice Lloyd Hibbert is presiding at the trial.