Women acquitted over letter

(CNS): The three women accused of obstructing the course of justice in connection with a murder trial have been acquitted. Taya Truman, Angella Thompson and Ave Watler were all found not guilty by a jury in the Grand Court on Monday afternoon following a week long trial. The women had been accused of attempting to prevent the crown’s key witness testifying in the trial of Osborne Douglas, Brandon Leslie and Patrick McField for the murder of Omar Samuels. Thompson and Watler admitted to writing a letter, which the witness and her mother signed, thatwas given to the court but said they did it to protect the witness and not to stop the trial.

Taya Truman, the mother of Osborne Douglas, said she was not involved in the production of the letter and had only asked the witness not to testify as she believed she was not telling the truth about her son, whom she said was with her on the night of the murder.

The jury of five women and two men took less than three hours to make their decision to acquit all three women, who said they had never intimidated or scared the witness into not giving evidence. Watler and Thompson had both testified that the letter was written with the support of the teen witness’s mother, Thompson’s sister, who was very ill.

The court heard that the family was also receiving threatening phone calls and Thompson said she had agreed to write the letter as she believed that if the young witness pulled out of the trial someone else would testify instead and the threats would stop. She later apologised for her action and said she realized how serious the charge against her was but that her aim had simply been to protect her niece and her sister.

Watler admitted typing the letter as a favour to Thompson, whom she described as her very dear friend. She also said that she drove Thompson to a notary public to formalise the letter for her to take to the court, which they both saw as a way to put an end to the threats and the genuine fear it was causing the teen witness’s mother, for whom they said they were both genuinely afraid and concerned.

The teen did go on to testify in the trial against the three men, who were convicted of the fatal shooting of Samuels and sentenced to life in prison, and gave evidence via video link. She claimed, however, that she was forced to sign the letter but did not know its contents.

The crown had also accused Truman of being the instigator of the letter. The prosecution contended that Truman believed that if the letter was given to the court before the preliminary enquiry for her son’s trial, the charges would be dropped and Douglas and his two co-defendants would be released.

Truman denied intimidating the witness but said she believed the teen was not telling the police the truth about what she had seen the night of the murder. When she took the stand, Truman said she understood from the comments of her mother that the witness was accusing the three men because of her boyfriend. She said her son was innocent as he had been at her home on the night of the murder and was so drunk he had urinated in a draw.

The court heard that the boyfriend of the teen witness was Martin Trench, whose fingerprints were found at the scene where it was believed Samuels was shot. However, he had left the country a few days after the killing and had never been interviewed by the police.