THE defence attorney representing the reputed leader of the Uchence Wilson Gang on Thursday accused one of the main investigators of lying about his client having a gun and firing at the police when he was being arrested.
During cross-examination in the ongoing anti-gang trial in the Home Circuit Court, Wilson’s lead attorney, Lloyd McFarlane, accused the police corporal of plotting with his colleague to lie about Wilson having a gun that day.
A police sergeant, who was a member of the police team that was reportedly transported to Wilson’s home on December 9, 2017 by an alleged gang member, Stephenson “Slim” Bennett, previously testified that when they arrived outside Wilson’s home he pulled a gun, fired at the police and ran off , escaping by jumping into a gully.
The witness said this was after one of the officers tried to hold on to him, but he escaped his grasp.
The policeman who had spent a week giving evidence telling how he managed to arrest different alleged gang members and what some of them had said during recordings which were played in court, was taken to task by McFarlane for omitting the part about seeing Wilson shooting at the police in his evidence, though it was written in his statement.
“How can you forget such a critical piece of evidence when this man is charged with shooting with intent?” McFarlane asked.
“… You had colluded with (M….) to say this man pulled a gun and fired at the police,” he continued.
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But the witness, while denying the lawyer’s suggestion, simply replied, “I am human, sir”.
“Because you are lying! “McFarlane shouted, but the police corporal insisted that he had seen Wilson with a gun firing at the police.
The lawyer then suggested to the witness that he was mistaken about seeing Wilson with a gun that night, but he disagreed.
McFarlane then asked the witness to demonstrate how Wilson acted that night and the witness stood with one of his hand behind him, while explaining that Wilson was running and firing shots behind him.
“Which way was he looking,” the lawyer asked.
The witness in reply said he could not answer as he was not paying attention to that.
“When someone is firing at you are you paying attention to where they are looking?” he asked.
Bennett’s lawyer, Vanessa Taylor, also accused the witness of being dishonest regarding his account of some of what had transpired when her client was arrested.
Taylor suggested to the witness that he pointed his gun at her client and he never identified himself as a policeman, but the witness disagreed.
She also told him he had lied about testifying that her client told him that he was going to a robbery with Wilson on the day he was arrested.
“I am going to suggest that everything you said is a lie,” she said, but the witness maintained that he told the truth.
Wilson and 20 alleged gang members, who include women, Police Corporal Lloyd Knight, and two former employees of a pawn shop in Kingston are being tried for various offences under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation, as well as for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.