Trial locked down as special hearing continues

(CNS): For the second day running the murder trial of Kirkland Henry and Larry Ricketts remained under wraps as a result of sub judice laws surrounding the specialist hearing preventing any public reporting of the testimony presented inside Grand Court One. However, the voir dire, did concludeon Thursday afternoon with a key witness, paving the way for the solicitor general Cheryll Richards QC (left) and Ricketts’ defence attorney Robert Fortune QC, to prepare their submissions for the judge over the evidence in question based on the testimony of all five witnesses called during the “trial within the trial.”

Chief Justice Anthony Smellie will hear arguments from both counsel on Friday about why crown evidence should or should not be admitted and make his ruling before the trial ‘proper’ resumes. In the interim, Richards asked for the court to return to its normal proceedings tomorrow morning before the judge hears the submissions on the voir dire, in order to allow the pathologist Dr Bruce Hyman, who has travelled to the Cayman Islands from Miami, to give his technical evidence.

Following Hyma’s testimony, the court will return to the voir dire with submissions and legal arguments regarding the disputed evidence, which will be made before the chief justice. The judge will then have to consider the presentations from the attorneys before ruling the evidence in or out and before any further crown witnesses are called.

So far, the crown has presented circumstantial and forensic DNA evidence against Henry, who has admitted guilt in the abduction, rape and robbery but denied the murder charge, and has connected him to the property of Estella Scott-Roberts. The crown has also revealed police statements made by Henry accusing Rickets of not only being his accomplice on the night of the murder but the primary motivator of the crime.

In the case against Ricketts the crown has submitted video footage evidence of him attempting to use Scott-Roberts’ Cayman National bank card on the morning after her murder as well as statements from police that Ricketts was in possession of Scott-Roberts’ phone. The crown has not yet submitted any other evidence against Ricketts in the trial proper.    

At the start of the trial the solicitor general had said that as a result of agreements between the legal teams the trail timetable had been cut from four to three weeks. It is unclear if the voir dire has derailed the expected time line, pushing the trial into a fourth week.