Witness tells of foul odour at Kartel house
BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator – Crime/Court Desk [email protected]
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
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THE man who led the investigation into the alleged murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams testified yesterday that he had smelt a foul odour, “like the scent of a dead animal”, inside the Havendale home of entertainer Vybz Kartel where Williams is believed to have been killed.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Vernal Thompson, who is in charge of criminal investigations for the St Andrew North Police Division, testified also that the inside of the house was set on fire following his first visit to the premises on August 22, in relation to the probe. He said the caution tape he strung around the perimeter of the premises was torn down.
Additionally, Thompson, who was being led in his examination-in-chief by attorney Jeremy Taylor during the murder trial in the Home Circuit Court, said that on a subsequent visit to the house, on September 30 he noticed that the back of the house had been demolished.
Thompson said he tried ascertaining who was responsible for the demolition, but to no avail.
Regarding the foul odour, Thompson testified that he noticed it when he went to the home on August 29, 2011. He said he detected the scent in the living room area and another room in the house.
Moments earlier, Thompson testified that he had smelt “a strong fragrance similar to that of Fabuloso disinfectant”. He said he detected the “same fragrance” in “another cubicle inside the house” on Swallowfield Avenue.
Following the luncheon adjournment, the witness testified that he received information to cause him to search for Williams’ remains in the overgrowth of the Dyke Road in Portmore, St Catherine and the Stony Hill area, but to no avail.
Thompson is to continue his examination-in-chief today.
Vybz Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer; Andre ‘Mad Suss’ St John; Shane Williams; Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell; and Kahira Jones are on trial for the alleged murder of Williams on August 16, 2011 over the disappearance of two illegal guns.
Yesterday, before Thompson took to the witness box, the defence concluded cross-examination of former Cybercrime Unit boss Sergeant Patrick Linton. Evidence pointed out to Linton by attorney Pierre Rogers showed that the SD card from a phone with a message about chopping up ‘Lizard’ “fine, fine” was accessed on September 30, hours after it was seized in the murder investigation. However, Linton said that he wasn’t the one who accessed the information on the SD card.
He denied that the BlackBerry message about the chopping up of Lizard was modified by him or made up.
Linton said in a previous statement that he first accessed the SD card on October 14 but he said in court that he had actually started lifting information from the disc on October 22.
mi nuh noe ow fabuloso fi smell like ded animal kmt dem juss a confuse di ting
He was saying that on his first inspection of the property he smelt fabuloso…..which suggest some massive cleaning took place….Days after he made a second visit that’s when he got the stench odor…
a betta em did seh bleach
Everything a get seal up yah now just need the jurors to finish the rest