Myles denies going to farm

(CNS): The witness that Randy Martin’s defence lawyers claim had the opportunity and motive to murder Sabrina Schirn denied seeing her on the day she was killed or going to the prison farm in East End when he gave evidence in Martin’s trial on Tuesday. Called to the court by the judge in order for the defence to question him over threats he had made to Schirn before shortly before she was found dead and the statements he gave to the police during the enquiry, Lance Myles said the threats were aimed at Schirn’s boyfriend not her. Myles said that on the morning Schirn was killed he was at home with his girlfriend until 11:30 before leaving with her to go to West Bay.

Myles told the court, which had been cleared of Schirn’s family by the judge, that he did not know that Schirn and his uncle, the defendant Randy Martin, were in communication and said he had nothing to do with any drugs that were being taken to the prison farm. He told David Evans QC that he could not remember what the calls on his mobile telephone between himself, Martin and then Schirn were about in the days before she was killed but said they could be about cigarettes. He testified that the only time he had visited Martin at the prison was to carry shoes his mother had sent and cigarettes.   

Although Myles reluctantly conceded that his relationship with Schirn, which he described as “just sex”, was a violent and volatile one, he denied threatening her at her work place and said it was her boyfriend, Patrick McField, that was the person who was violent and told Evans to check the hospital records. Myles also stated that it was McField who had shown up with the wrench a few days before her murder, the day Myles says he went to talk with Schirn at Blockbusters to tell her to leave him alone. Presented with one of his payslips that appeared to have romantic messages on it from him to Schirn, Myles denied that the notes had anything to do with him.

He said the dispute between him and Sabrina was over damage to her car, which she accused Myles of committing but he had not. When the threatening message which he had left on Schirn’s voicemail a week or so before her murder was played to him in the court, he said that if the lawyer listened properly he would hear it was a threat to McField and not Schirn.

He also denied asking his girlfriend, LeeAnne Ebanks, who had given conflicting testimony to the police about their whereabouts on the day of Schirn’s killing, to lie for him or that he knew anything about her also leaving threatening messages for Schirn. Asked about why he and his girlfriend were talking on their cell phones if they were together on the morning of Schirn’s death, he said it was probably because he was outside the house, perhaps in the laundry, and she may have called him. He also stated that they had not really discussed the statements that they had given to the police.

He said he did not help search for Schirn when she was missing as he had no reason to, nor did he have any reason to call her. He also said that he had become angry with Schirn’s brothers when they visited him after she had gone missing because he was sick of people accusing him in his own yard of things he didn’t do.

Myles told the court he had never been to the prison farm and knew nothing about what went on there and he did not go there on 11 March.

Myles was then followed in the witness stand by his girlfriend at the time, LeeAnne Ebanks, who told the court that she had lied to the police in her statement because she was afraid for herself when Schirn had been found dead. Later in her evidence, however, she said that she was terrified for her life and still was and that she was under pressure from Myles to lie. She said that when she had discovered that Myles was charged with firearm offences and attempted murder she was desperately afraid.

Ebanks admitted leaving a threatening message on Schirn’s phone the night before she died because of the pressure from Myles about threats Schirn had made to damage his car. Ebanks said Myles was becoming aggravated with her and had provoked her into leaving the message.

Admitting that she had lied to the police about being with Myles all day on the 11 March as she was not with him in the evening, Ebanks told the court that she was being honest when she said that they were together in the morning and gave the same account as Myles –  that they were at his home until around 11:30am before heading to West Bay.  She also told the court that the phone calls between her and Myles on themorning in question were because Myles was in the laundry room away from the house.

The trial of Martin is now in its fourth week and with only two more crown witnesses to come, the defence is expected to begin its case on Thursday.