Ebanks: ‘I didn’t kill Bise’

(CNS): Leonard Antonio Ebanks repeatedly denied killing a Swiss Banker in 2008 with Chad Anglin, when he took the stand in court this week. The West Bay man said there was not a “scintilla of truth” to the allegations against him that he had killed Frederic Bise with Chad Anglin, which come exclusively from two women. One he said is a scorned ex-girlfriend whom he admitted treating badly and who, he said, was having sex with most of the local police force. The other he accused of practicing Obeah and saying whatever the police told her to say because she was desperate for money. Owning up to a long criminal history because of drug addiction he denied being a murderer.

However, the court heard the details of Ebanks’ conviction for the killing of Tyrone Burrell, in 2010, which he also denied. He said the evidence against him in that case again came from the paid witness and the judge had believed her as oppose to all the evidence that indicated he had not killed Burrell.

Ebanks (44) who was belligerent and argumentative undercrosss examination at times was still clear and emphatic on the stand as he gave an account of his life at the time of the Bise killing in 2008 when he was living on Birch Tree Hill Road in West Bay. He said he couldn’t remember exactly what he was doing on the night Bise was killed, or any specific day, as at that time his life was all about hustling for money to get a fix of crack and he said he was using both cocaine and ganja heavily at the time.

But over and over Ebanks told the court that, “I have no knowledge of when he was killed, why he was killed, or who killed him,” as he denied the murder.

He recalled meeting Bise, on one occasion at Maccabucca in West Bay some time towards the end of 2007, when he was in the company of man who Ebanks knew and who was known to be gay.

But Ebanks said he had never been to Bise’s house and knew nothing aboutthe killing until after the fact when the word spread around West Bay. He said he didn’t know anything about what Chad Anglin was up to and he said he could not vouch for him but he was not with Anglin on the night Bise was killed and he did not drop blocks on the man or help Anglin with the body or anything else.

Ebanks said he was not particularly close with his cousin and they did not hang in the same circles. He pointed out that despite the claims by the witnesses that he and Anglin had communicated that night there was no telephone evidence to link them. He noted that while Anglin was seen leaving Kelly’s Bar with Bise and his DNA was found at the house and in the dead man’s car, there was nothing that suggested he had been anywhere near, Bise or Anglin. Ebanks said he was not involved at all.

He denied driving around West Bay with the body of Bise in the murdered man’s car, as one witnesses had alleged, claiming not only was he not driving that night he did not drive at all and got around on a bicycle. That point was supported by another witness who had known him all his life who told the court that he never seen Ebanks drive a car.

Ebanks pointed to inconsistencies and differing statements given by the two women against him. He told the jury that his former girlfriend had very close relationships with the West Bay police and at some point had said she was a special constable. Ebanks said he later learned that she had gone to the police alleging he had confessed to her that he was involved in the Bise murder on the day after he walked out on her and gone back to his wife.

Ebanks said that he had been taken aback by the confession from the helper who worked at the local drug yard in West Bay which he frequented as he said they were friendly. But he believed she was desperate. As a result he said she was persuaded to lie about him as a result of the cash inducement of the witness protection programme. He said at the time she made up the allegations she had complained repeatedly of many problems and not getting paid at her job.

Despite rigorous cross examination by the crown’s leading QC, Simon Russell Flint, Ebanks did not waiver about not killing Bise and although he told the jury that he was “fighting not to tell this man some bad things” he said he was not the killer and did not know who was.

When the QC asked if Ebanks if he was “a batty boy” a term brandished around during the trial in reference to Bise being gay and that Ebanks himself had a local reputation as a homosexual he denied that he was gay or that he had ever had sex with men for money to get drugs. He said Flint was “talking rubbish of the highest order,” as he struggled to rein in his temper.

He emphasized the common mistrust of the police in the district and alleged conspiracies and corruption as he repeatedly denied not just the Bise killing but the Tyrone murder as well. He implied that the police had assisted the women to coordinate their stories.

Ebanks said he was no saint and throughout his life his cocaine addiction had driven him to do many things including burglary, assault and even robbery but he said he never killed anyone.