Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator

There was an early adjournment yesterday at the trial of the three policemen charged with the murder of two men who were abducted from a plaza in 2004 because the witnesses who should have testified at the afternoon session were absent.

When the case resumed in the afternoon, prosecutor Kerri-Ann Kemble told the court that the Crown was unable to proceed due to the absence of the witnesses.

Supreme Court judge Horace Marsh granted an adjournment and asked the jurors to return today.

Police officers testified yesterday about the attempts they made to find the two men after they were reported missing. They said they went to several lock-ups in the Corporate Area but did not find them.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Victor Barrett and constables Paul Edwards and Louie Lynch have been on trial in the Home Circuit Court since Monday.

They were arrested and charged in June 2009 for the murder of 20-year-old Kemar Walters, an apprentice mechanic of Kitson Town, St Catherine, and 28-year-old Oliver Duncan, a shopkeeper and blockmaker of Olympic Gardens, Kingston 11.

The Crown is alleging that the men were abducted by policemen from a plaza on Washington Boulevard, St Andrew, on December 23, 2004.

taken into custody

It is further alleged that Walters was sitting in a blue Honda CR-V and Duncan was going towards the vehicle when they were taken into police custody.

They were allegedly placed in a red motor car driven by the accused Edwards.

The Crown is also alleging that the accused Lewis and another policeman named Silvera went in the motor car with the men and Edwards drove off leaving two other policemen behind.

Yesterday, Mavis Mighty, mother of the deceased Duncan, said under cross-examination by attorney-at-law Valerie Neita-Robertson that sometime before her son went missing, she saw him and he said he was not happy.

She said he kept saying "judgement, judgement". She said when she questioned him, he said he was threatened by his friends.

Detective Sergeant Gairy Duncan testified that he received a radio message from police control on December 25, 2004. He said about 6:20 p.m. that same day, he went to Old Fort, off the Port Royal main road, where he saw a blue Honda CR-V which was completely burnt out. There was a licence plate to the back of the vehicle. He said he contacted police control and found that it belonged to Howard Dunkley of Carpenter Road, Kingston 10.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com