Alleged target makes no ID

(CNS): The man that the crown claims Raziel Jeffers had intended to shoot and kill, when he and his accomplice opened fire on a group of young men in a yard in West Bay in July 2009, failed to identify him as the gunman. The prosecution's case is that the motive behind the murder of Marcus Ebanks and the attempted murder of four other men at the scene that night was because the defendant was trying to kill Jose Sanchez (left). Taking the witness stand on Wednesday, Sanchez however, acknowledged that at the time of his interview with the police whenhe was asked if one of the gunmen could have been Jeffers he told them he did not think it was.

When asked by Jeffers’ defence attorney Peter Champagnie how well the witness knew the accused man Sanchez he admitted he knew him well and saw him regularly but he had failed to identify him on the night of the shooting.

During his brief appearance on the stand Sanchez, who was present at the yard in Bonaventure Road the night of the killing, indicated that it was a long time ago, everything happened too quickly that it was dark and their faces were covered so he could not recognise the men who were “running and coming” as he sat in the yard and saw them approach. He said he knew they were hostile and added that there “had been a lot of violence at the time,” and admitted he saw one of the men had a gun in his hand.

Sanchez said he had turned to his friend Joe Bush who was also in the yard and told him to watch out for “those guys” as he quickly moved into the house and locked the door and stayed on the ground.

The witness denied that there was any particular trouble between himself and the defendant. He did however admit that he had taken up with the defendant’s girlfriend and baby-mother when Jeffers was in jail and they later had a baby together as well but he said he didn’t know how Jeffers felt about that.

Asked about a fight in Kelly’s bar in West Bay prior to the shooting at Bonaventure Road, Sanchez denied that Jeffers had ever hit him or caused him any trouble while he was there.  

In his opening statement Andrew Radcliffe the prosecuting attorney had said that there was bad blood between Jeffers and Sanchez as they were both members of opposing West Bay gangs and it was he not Marcus Ebanks that Jeffers had targeted that night in July 2009. However, when Sanchez, who was one of three men recently acquitted of the murder of Alrick Peddie, who was shot in a West Bay yard in March 2010, took the stand neither Radcliffe nor Champagnie quizzed Sanchez about the motive or gang issue.