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AG silent on public accounts

Cayman News | 02/09/2010 | 38 Comments

(CNS): The Auditor General’s Office has refused to comment on how many government ministries and statutory authorities made the 31 August deadline for submitting their financial accounts for the year end 2009/10. CNS called the office on Wednesday morning and a spokesperson for the new auditor general said he would be making no comment as it formed part of ongoing work, which the office had said it would not discuss. The spokesperson stated that the situation regarding government’s accounts would be revealed in the auditor general’s annual government report, which would be published in December. As a result CNS has now submitted an FOI request.

Under the Public Management and Finance Law government ministries, portfolios, companies and statutory authorities are required to hand in financial reports for auditing to the Auditor General’s Office on 31 August. The AG and his team have until the end of October to complete the audits. Then the government bodies must prepare their annual reports, including the financial statements and the audit reports, in order to table them in the Legislative Assembly by 14 November. Finally, government should table its consolidated financial statements in an annual report, which includes the AG office’s opinion, by 15 December.

The audit office told CNS that once the whole annual report was completed in December the new AG, Alastair Swarbrick, will be happy to comment on the situation and how government had met its reporting responsibilities.

“Until we issue that report, we are not in a position to discuss the status of the work we are doing with the media, which would effectively pre-empt the communication we have with the members of the Legislative Assembly to whom we report the results of our work,” the AG’s spokesperson said.

The issue of government entities failing to make the necessary reporting deadlines in relation to their responsibility to the public has been a huge controversy. Government has not completed a set of annual reports for over six years and many entities remain significantly behind with their reports.

Extra help had been drafted in to assist CFOs across government, at further expense to the public purse, to help them meet this year’s deadline while simultaneously addressing their delinquent accounts for previous years.

Although the AG has said he will discuss the issue in December, CNS made a formal FOI request to the AG’s office this morning following the office’s refusal to reveal which government bodies had met this year’s deadline and which had not, on the basis that the public has a right to know which government entities are meeting their legal obligations and which are not.

Crown witness’s memory fails

Cayman News | 02/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): A witness who told the police four days after the murder of Omar Samuels that he had seen one of the defendants quarrel with the dead man on the night he was killed revealed he could no longer recall most of the events recorded in his statement when he appeared in court today. Marcus Manderson, who is an inmate at HMP Northward, said he could only remember what happened later that night when he found Samuels and tied up his injured leg. In contradiction to his original statement, he told the court that the dead man had revealed the name of his killer before he died. Manderson said that Samuels told him “Martin” had shot him and taken his gun.

In his original statement the witness had told police that when he saw Samuels at JahT’s he was bleeding, and when he asked if he had been stabbed Samuels replied, “No them man they shoot me, take away me gun.”

During the crown’s opening statement on Monday, Cheryl Richards QC, the solicitor general, that stated this witness had given a statement to police soon after the murder saying that Patrick McField, one of three men accused of killing Omar Samuels on 5 July 2009, had quarrelled with the deceased at Peppers Nightclub on West Bay Road.

However, when the witness came to the stand today, Wednesday 1 September, he stated that he could not remember anything that happened that night before he got to JahT’s in McField Square, where he found Samuels injured and tried to help him. He told the court that as he tied up Samuels’ leg he asked who had shot him and Samuels said it was Martin who shot him and took his gun. Manderson said that Samuels had asked him not to say anything to anyone as Samuels did not think he was going to die.

As Richards took Manderson through his statement, made only five days after the incident, he continually denied any recollection of the events of the night of 4 July and the early morning of 5 July, including going to Peppers night club, where he had said he had seen Samuels quarrel with McField both inside the club and outside in the parking lot.

Manderson said it was too long ago to remember and he was drunk. He agreed that the signature on the statement appeared to be his but he said he could not remember saying any of it or recall any of it happening.

Richards directed him to read the police statement and asked what had happened as she took him through it step by step, but the witness answered “I don’t recall” or “I can’t remember” over and over.

He denied being told to lie or that he had come to court with his own reasons for not telling the truth. Manderson insisted that he was now telling the “whole truth” about what he could remember but it was too long ago to recall what had actually happened or what he had said when he made the statement.

Manderson said all he knew was that he could remember seeing Samuels after he had been shot. “When I see him he told me to tie up his leg. Then Omar told me that Martin shot him and take his gun,” the prosecution witness told the court.

Asked why he did not tell the police at the time, Manderson said Omar had asked him not to. “I figured he’d probably told the police when he wasn’t dead,” he added. After Samuels died, however, Manderson said he was afraid as he did not know who this Martin was and he was still afraid for his life.

Under cross examination from McField’s defence attorney, Trevor Burke QC, the witness agreed the police had come looking for him and that he had not gone to the police himself. He also agreed that they had probably taken the statement from him when he was at his home. Manderson said he knew the police came to find him because other witnesses had reported seeing him with Samuels before he died.

Following the problematic crown witness, the solicitor general called two police officers, who confirmed the details of an ID conducted at George Town police station, where the crown’s eyewitness identified the three defendants, Patrick McField, Osbourne Douglas and Brandon Leslie Ebanks.

The two officers were followed by RCIPS Scenes of Crime Officer Zoan Marin, who revealed that the crime scene which she had processed was not the porch and yard area of the two storey house at McField Lane, as described by the crown’s eye witness yesterday as the scene of the fight and the subsequent shooting.

The officer said the shootingscene was near the laundry room and the alley between two apartments on the other side of the two storey house. She confirmed that she found five shell casings and fragments of what could be bullets in that area near two apartments, but no bullets or casings were found near the porch. She also confirmed that the area was very dark when she first arrived in the early morning hours and that she had required the assistance of the fire department to set up lights to assist her in processing the scene.

The trial of McField, Douglas and Ebanks continues in the grand court tomorrow with more witnesses for the prosecution.

Judge vacancy advertised

Cayman News | 02/09/2010 | 24 Comments

(CNS): Following its first meeting, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission has already begun the recruitment process for a new high court judge and the position will be advertised, according to the commission chair, Dan Scott. He said the creation of the JLSC began a new system of recruitment for the judiciary as its members, along with other appropriate people, would form the panel to find the new judge. Although the chief justice is expected to offer input, Scott confirmed he would no longer be solely responsible for finding senior judicial staff. Scott also said the commission was drawing up a code of conduct for the judiciary and the public would have access to complain directly to the JLSC regarding the conduct of judges and other senior public figures working in legal services. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

Along with its remit to act as an independent disciplinary body for all senior public figures working in legal services and the judiciary, the JLSC will also have the responsibility for conducting the recruitment process for judges and senior legal roles, and then make recommendations to the governor.

In his first press briefing since the creation of the commission, Scott explained that the JLSC, which has been established under the Cayman Islands Constitution 2009, would now be responsible for the recruitment of senior public sector legal personnel, from Grand Court judges to the director of public prosecutions when the officer is created.

He said the JLSC represented a new system and the chief justice would no longer be solely responsible for the recruitment of judges and magistrates. Scott stated that during the recruitment process for the current vacancy Chief Justice Anthony Smellie would be expected to offer input, but the recruitment panel itself would consist of members of the JLSC and others who it suggested should be there.

“There is no question that the Constitution has provided for significant changes in this area and it adds another layer to the process,” he said, adding that was a positive layer which would enhance the system.

Scott said that, as yet, the commission had not turned its attention to dealing with the magistrate vacancy as it had not yet been advised of the circumstance surround the departure of Grace Donalds.

Aside from the need to recruit judges and other senior legal staff, the JLSC has a watchdog role Scott said that while the commission would not have anyresponsibility over judge’s legal rulings and decisions, as that would still be the responsibility of the appeal court system, it would be concerned with judge’s behaviour.

The JLSC is currently creating a code of conduct based on various international standards, and once completed the code would become a public document. Scott said the public would have access to the commission to complain. The chair stated that the JLSC was working on a website that would provide an open portal for people to see what the commission was doing and how they could raise concerns. Scott said that the code of conduct would be published there and the procedure for complaints would also be explained on the site.

The commission and its make up was established under the new Constitution, which requires two non-legal members including the chair, plus the president of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and experienced legal experts for other specified positions. Scott and Dara Flowers-Burke are the non-legal members and Sir John Chadwick is the current president of the CICA. Edward Zacca, Sir David Simmons, Richard Ground, Richard Coles and Charles Jennings are the other members.

Two nabbed in West Bay raid

Cayman News | 01/09/2010 | 13 Comments

(CNS): Police arrested two men and took a semi-automatic pistol and a quantity of ganja off the streets following a police operation in West Bay yesterday. According to the RCIPS, at about 1.45am on Tuesday, 31 August, a joint uniform, CID and USG operation was launched in the West Bay area. A car and premises were searched resulting in the seizure of a quantity of ganja and a semi-automatic pistol. The men, aged 23 and 31 years, were arrested on suspicion of possession of an unlicensed firearm, as well as possession and consumption of ganja. Police enquiries are ongoing. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)

Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden said, “Following the gun amnesty the commissioner warned that we would be going all out to gather intelligence and mount targeted raids to take illegal guns off the streets. This latest operation and the successful recovery of this dangerous weapon underlines our commitment to do exactly that. The joint RCIPS and Cayman Crime Stoppers reward offered for information leading to the recovery of illegal guns and the arrest of those who hold them still stands. So now is your chance to tell us what you know to help eradicate gun crime in Cayman and put those responsible behind bars."

Anyone with information about gun crime should call their local police office or Cayman Crimestoppers on 800-TIPS.

Tourist robbed by two men

Cayman News | 01/09/2010 | 64 Comments

(CNS): Police have confirmed that a visitor from the United States was reportedly robbed along the West Bay Road on Tuesday. At about 10:20 last night officers on patrol came upon a 38-year-old man at the Owens Roberts international airport, who reported to them that earlier on he had been robbed on the West Bay Rd in the vicinity of the Hyatt hotel. He said that at around 9:50pm he was approached by two males who knocked him to the ground. They then took his metal clip which contained a Verizon incredible phone, ID, stamps and various cards and ran off. No cash was involved. He received minor injuries to one of his knees but did not require medical attention. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

He described both suspects as white males between the ages of 26 and 30 about 5’8” tall with short haircuts. The man said one robber was wearing a blue shirt and white shorts, the other, had a green shirt on the police did not say if either of the men were armed. The man who is from Oklahoma in the United States will be leaving the islands tomorrow, police said.

Anyone who was in the area at the time and might have witnessed the men leaving the scene are asked to call the George Town CID at 949 4222 or Crime Stoppers at 800 TIPS (8477)

No need for pension swap

Cayman News | 01/09/2010 | 80 Comments

(CNS): A motion filed in the Legislative Assembly by the government’s George Town backbench MLA, Ellio Solomon, is both completely unnecessary and nothing more than a political manoeuvre, the opposition has said. Alden McLaughlin criticised the motion by Solomon which proposes to allow Caymanians to swap their pensions for a home loan and take up to $35,000 from their pension to use as a deposit for a house or land. The former Cabinet minister said there are already various schemes in place to help people find capital for property and that there is no need to encourage them to put their pensions at risk.

The opposition member for George Town pointed out that the government’s mortgage guarantee programme is just one example where the government is already helping people with deposits for their own home. McLaughlin said he could see no reason why people should have to take money from their pensions to buy homes as there are lots of ways that government is already assisting and guaranteeing people to get mortgages through other means.

Only last week two more banks joined the mortgage assistance programme, which eliminates the need for Caymanians to have a deposit so long as they can meet the full mortgage payments, which is essentially doing the same thing as Solomon has suggested.

The private member’s motion, which has been tabled in the Legislative Assembly by former radio talk show host Solomon and backed by Bodden Town MLA Dwayne Seymour, asks the government,of which he is a member, to consider amending legislation to allow Caymanians to make a one-time withdrawal of up to CI$35,000 from their pension for the sole purpose of providing a deposit to a local financial institution towards the purchase of either a parcel of land, or the construction of a new home or an existing residence or apartment in the Cayman Islands.

“Given the range of programmes in place to assist first time Caymanian homeowners, this seems hugely unnecessary and merely a political manoeuvre,” the PPM member stated.

McLaughlin explained that the Government Guaranteed Home Assisted Mortgage, or GGHAM, which was created by the PPM during the last administration, had been established for the very reason of dealing with the deposit problem. He said first time buyers could get up to $200,000 without a deposit under the scheme and some 260 people have already taken up the offer and more money had just been pledged to ensure the successful programme would continue.

He said there were other schemes as well, such as the removal of stamp duty for land under 75,000 and other guarantees to assist Caymanians with property acquisition who could afford to pay a mortgage.

He said that taking money from your pension at 25 may seem beneficial but would lead to problems down the line and government was already heavily burdened with the needs of those who had ended their working lives with insufficient coverage.

“I know things are hard but this proposal makes no sense,” McLaughlin maintained and said the more pressing problem was helping those in homes keep them, He claimed this scheme did nothing to assist those who owed property who were trying to save them but was about creating new home owners.

McLaughlin said it was a radical proposal to take money from a long term investment such as a pension when there were several other avenues that potential home owners could pursue.

Solomon has argued in other media that home ownership was about people’s future and if they owned a property at retirement that would be half of their living expenses taken care of when they were pensioners.

Witness heard 13 shots

Cayman News | 01/09/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): On day two of the murder trial of Patrick McField, Osborne Douglas and Brandon Ebanks, the crown’s key eye witness said she heard 13 shots fired on the night (5 July 09) Omar Samuels was killed in front of a house in McField Lane, George Town. The sixteen year old girl told the court, during two days of evidence via video link that she was there when the three defendants came to the house. Douglas and Ebanks both had guns, she said, which they held to Samuels head before they began fighting in the yard, while McField looked on. The teen testified that Samuels fell back on to a fence as Ebanks and Douglas began shooting at him. (Photo courtesy of News27)

The witness who was 15 at the time says that she and her female friend were at the house that night to see another friend who lived upstairs at the property. The girl said that she had arrived around midnight to see the woman who, it was revealed during testimony, was a mother with four young children, but she discovered she was not home. She told the court that she went downstairs to the porch to look for her there, when she saw Omar Samuels a man she knew from the neighbourhood sitting by the wall. She said they spoke for a short time but as she was preparing to leave the three defendants arrived.

The teen testified that Douglas walked towards Omar and said “what you saying now?” and McField said “una deal with him” then Ebanks and Douglas began pointing the guns at his head. As Samuels stood up the men began to fight in the yard and at some point Samuels stumbled in to the fence and shots were fired.

During her evidence the teen said she saw both Douglas and Ebanks point theguns towards Samuels and three shots were fired before she and her teen friend ran away down the side of the house and hid between a wall and the Laundromat. More shots were fired and the teen confirmed she heard 13 in total. When the shooting stopped she said the two girls stayed hidden until the three defendants passed them laughing and talking, carrying the guns.

She testified that a little while later they had hurried back to her own house via McField Lane, following behind the defendants but they had not seen them. She said when she and her friend arrived at her house she did not wake her mother who was sleeping, but they went to her room and looked out of the window. She said she then saw the three defendants come into her home yard as she peered through the curtains.

During cross examination the teen confirmed that she did not call an ambulance for Samuels or tell anyone about what she saw and admitted that she had not gone to the police until more than three weeks after the shooting on the 29 July.

She said she had not phoned an ambulance as she “did not think it was necessary” as she was not certain that Samuels had been injured. However, she learned around 30 minutes later that he was dead as her uncle had called to tell her, but she did not tell him that she and her friend had seen who had shot him because she was shocked and frightened.

Asked by defense counsel to explain why it took her so long to go to the police she said she hadn’t wanted to go and she only went because of threats made by McField that she didn’t have long to live and as a result of two appearances of Douglas in her yard. The teen stated that the last time Douglas came was on the morning that they decided to go to the police. She said her friend had broken down and said they had to go to the police as she couldn’t stand it any longer and they had to go together to say what they had seen.

During the two days of evidence the teen was cross examined by each of the defence Queen’s Counsel representing the three defendants. Each raised the question of the teen witness’ former boyfriend whom they suggested had been present at the scene that night which was the real reason why she was there and it was him that had told her to testify against the three defendants.

Trevor Burke QC representing Patrick McField implied that it was odd that a fifteen year old girl would be visiting the mother of four very young children after midnight without calling and then end up hanging around the porch with Samuels a man who was several years older than her.

He asked a number of times about a man called Martin Trench whose palm print, the attorney said, was found on a car parked at the scene of the crime. He said the police had been looking for him but he had left the country for Jamaica soon after the shooting.

The teen witness confirmed that she had gone out with the 24 year old Trench before the shooting but they were not together by that time, she knew nothing about him going to Jamaica and she said she was not with him that night.

Burke put it to her that she had not seen McField there that night and even she may not have been there, but that she had made her testimony up, which the teen witness denied.

Alastair Malcolm QC, representing Douglas, queried how she could be certain who she had seen with the gun. He suggested that she had not seen the men who had come to the yard for very long. He asked as she had admitted in her evidence that the man she said was Douglas was wearing a scarf over his face how she knew it was him. The attorney noted she had claimed to hear him say only a fewwords and asked how she could say it was Douglas.

"I recognized his voice" and “it rang a bell in my head,” she said, when he spoke. The teen also testified that she could still see his eyes, and later when he passed her as she was hiding by the Laundromat, he was not wearing the scarf.

Malcolm also asked about the times that she claimed Douglas came to her yard after the date of the shooting. She said the first time was around a week and a half later and when the defence counsel asked if that was around the 15 July 2009 she agreed it was. “If I was to suggest on that day he was in Jamaica would you be surprised, would you still say he was in your yard?” the attorney asked the teen who replied, “Yes sir.”

Counsel for Ebanks, Nicholas Rhodes QC, also queried why she was in the neighbourhood so late at night attempting to see a mother with young children. He said that gambling and drug dealing was known to go on at the porch where she says she went after finding her friend wasn’t home and not somewhere she could expect to feel safe. However, the teen said she was used to the area. She also revealed in her testimony that she lived only a minute or so away.

Rhodes also suggested that someone had put her up to blaming the three defendants which she denied. He suggested that she had not seen Ebanks on the night of the shooting but the teen witness said she did.

She told the court that she had no reason to lie and she had nothing against the defendants. “I did see them there that night,” the teen said.

CIG faces costly legal fight

Cayman News | 31/08/2010 | 29 Comments

(CNS): The courtroom battle which government now faces with the former schools contractor, Tom Jones International, is set to be an expensive fight. Not only did government lose its bid to get TJI’s claim against it thrown out, the judge has also ordered that government foot the bill for the contractor’s attorneys in the first round of what looks likely to become a very costly exercise for the Education Ministry. According to the judgment handed down by Justice Alex Henderson last week, TJI was “wholly successful” at this stage and was entitled to costs. Henderson also said that government’s counterclaim against TJI was already vulnerable to strike out because of the “woeful lack of particularity” presented to the court in this first round.

In a government statement last week in relation to the loss, officials said the reason why it was, as the judge said, "forensically embarrassed" was because it had not placed its full case before the court as there was no need to do so at the early stage, but it would now spell out its counter claim against those made by TJI, the company which walked off the school job sites last year after its dispute with government escalated.

In the first instance government had applied to the court to have TJI’s claims against it for just under CI$3million plus interest dismissed on the basis that it was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process. The attorney general offered five reasons why government should not pay two certificates from TJI issued in October 2009 which related to work undertaken at the two school sites for the previous month, but they were all rejected by the judge.

In what is already a complex contractual case, government had essentially said that because of wider negotiations going on with TJI intended to address the broader claims by both parties against each other, these two certificates formed part of the whole negotiations. The goal was to find an interim settlement to deal with the growing school costs and disputes and to try and get the projects back on track.

Government claimed, according to the court document, that wider negotiations for all of the claims and counter claims were in the process of being worked out when TJI presented these two certificates, 15A and 17A, which came to $2,947,818. The CIG said it did not need to pay TJI until the entire negotiations were resolved, while TJI claimed that the certificates were not part of the wider dispute but had been signed off by the surveyor and the architects and should be paid whatever the outcome of the other negotiations.

Presenting its position to the court, TJI claimed disputes over payment began almost immediately on the school projects. While the details were not set out, in general TJI complained of late payments on a number of occasions and seven day notices announcing imminent work stoppages had been issued several times. Government, however, claimed that some of the applications for payment contained inflated claims and were not adequately documented, so it was necessary to request additional information, which caused the delays.

By September 2009 the relationship between the parties had deteriorated and the completion of the two projects had become endangered. By the month end work had stopped at the John Gray site and was reduced at the Clifton Hunter site, which government considered a breach of contract.

In view of the problems, government engaged a project manager to try and resolve them, which TJI welcomed and negotiations began with the goal of reaching an interim agreement. Both government and TJI give a varying account of what happened with regard to the negotiations and the issuing of the disputed certificates.

The dispute boils down to the whether or not the two certificates for work which was completed and signed off by the architect and surveyor was or was not part of the wider negotiations. TJI says not as it claims these two certificates were approved by the architect and were not intended to be conditional upon an interim agreement and therefore government should pay. Government, on the other hand, says the certificates were drawn up in good faith as part of the attempt to settle the bigger picture, but as no agreement was ever signed they do not need to pay.

This argument, along with wider claims and counter claims will now go to a full trial in what is likely to become both an expensive and lengthy court room drama where all of the issues in dispute between the two parties will ultimately be decided by a judge.

Go to the full judgment

Cops criticize commissioner

Cayman News | 31/08/2010 | 106 Comments

(CNS): The Police Association has publicly criticized Commissioner David Baines regarding comments he made about basic literacy training for police officers. The association suggested that the rank and file could have been further demoralised by what Baines said at a public meeting in West Bay, which was reported on CNS. Inspector Gordon, the group’s chairman, stated that this could have put further strain on an already strained relationship between management and the ranks. The group, which represents the interests of police officers, has complained about problems with training and believes it is mismanagement of cash that has caused the problems.(Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

For many years, Gordon said, the association had raised concerns with respect to training and development with the various commissioners, and some of the major failings of the RCIPS regarding training were as a result of money not being properly managed.

During the recent round of the public police meetings Baines revealed that there had been various complaints about the competency of his officers including their levels of basic literacy. He said people had complained that they could not take statements because they could not spell and they were lacking in various customer service skills. He said that, as a result, the RCIPS had now teamed up with the UCCI to address those problems.

He also announced a number of other training initiatives, including exchange programmes and an accelerated scheme for young Caymanian officers with exceptionalpotential, all of which were aimed at professionalising the service.

Gordon, however, said the UCCI course was geared towards further strengthening the twelve weeks police training programme offered to new recruits. He said the initiative at UCCI is for an additional twenty-four weeks to enhance and support the development of these officers, and he refuted the implication by Baines that it was a basic literacy programme for serving officers.

He said that graduates from the February 2009 police training class had completed their programme on 18 August this year and indicatedthat they, along with other serving officers, held diverse, academic and professional qualifications.

“Out of the twelve recruits in this class, six have academic competencies ranging from an associates degree to accountancy,” Gordon said. “The RCIPS has some highly skilled officers with various types of professional qualifications, such as LLB in law, business, engineering and other professional fields. A significant number of officers have taken personal responsibility for their development and are utilising the Civil Service College (CSC) and UCCI programmes.”

He said that following the concerns over training and development, which had been raised with successive commissioners, the association had come to the conclusion that some of the major failings of the RCIPS with regards to training and development in an effort to professionalise the service are as a result of the allocated funds not being managed effectively.

“The Police Association is committed to working with management to strengthen the already strained relationship between labour and management but comments like the ones made by the commissioner at this recent meeting were left to one’s own interpretation at the risk of further demoralising the already hard working and dedicated officers that serve these islands,” Gordon said in a statement released to the media on Monday afternoon.

Gordon added that he applauded the commissioner’s efforts in trying to identify and improve the organization through his training initiatives and officers would benefit greatly from the exchange programme, when it started, with the exposure and training in other jurisdictions.

The objective of the accelerated scheme to attract and retaining qualified Caymanians was important, he said, but cautioned that if not managed properly “the laudable intentions will be placed at risk.”

Crown has eye witness

Cayman News | 30/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): The murder trial of Patrick McField, Osborne Douglas and Brandon Ebanks for the murder of Omar Samuels, opened this morning (Monday 30 August) with the revelation that the crown has an eye witness to the murder. The 16 year old girl is the crown’s key witness who says she saw the accused men shoot Samuels outside a house in McField Lane where she had gone to visit a friend on 5 July 2009. Solicitor General, Cheryl Richards QC gave her brief opening statement about the crown’s case against the three defendants, shortly after eight women and four men were selected to serve on the jury.

Richards told the court that the identification made by the witness was key to the case. The crown’s prosecuting counsel said she was related to two of the defendants and lived in the same neighbourhood as the third so she was very familiar with the men. Despite the darkness at the time of the crime Richards said the house and porch where Samuels was shot was well lit.

The crown’s case is that McField, Douglas and Ebanks had quarreled with the deceased earlier in the evening and then later came to the house to find him where armed with guns the three men acted together to commit the murder. Although Samuels was shot only once in the leg police found five empty shell casing at the scene.

The one gun shot which Samuels received proved to be fatal and Richards said the pathologist confirmed that the bullet penetrated Samuels’ femoral artery causing him to bleed to death.

The three men accused of killing Samuels are all represented by Queen’s Counsel from the UK and local defence attorneys Nicholas Dixie, Ben Tonner and Clyde Allen. The crown’s case is being made by Cheryl Richards QC, the solicitor general, supported by crown counsel Trisha Hutchinson.

The trial continues this afternoon with a video link to the first witness.