Parts of former cop's statement in teen's killing 'made up' – prosecutor

Prosecutor Jeremy Taylor says parts of the unsworn statement given by the former policeman who is on trial for the 2007 killing an unarmed teenage boy were made up.

He told the seven-member jury in the murder trial of former constable Mark Russell that the unsworn statement should be dismissed as a facade.

Taylor was making his closing argument this morning in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Russell is on trial for the shooting death of 18-year-old Ravin Thompson along Darling Street, in downtown Kingston.

Three Jamaica Defence Force soldiers have testified that they saw him place a police-issued M16 rifle in Thompson’s hands then take it back before the teen was shot several times by another police constable, identified as Morris Lee.

In his unsworn statement yesterday, the former constable accused the soldiers of lying and said he would never do something like that.

However, Taylor says the accounts given by the soldiers were the truth about how the teenage boy from Whitfield Town was killed.

He says Russell, by his action, has shed innocent blood and violated his oath as a police officer.