ALLEGED leader of the Westmoreland-based King Valley Gang Derval Williams, o/c Lukie, and his sidekick Christon Grant were on Friday found guilty of conspiring, via cellular phones, to murder a Crown witness while behind bars at Horizon Adult Remand Centre in 2020, the same year they were let off on anti-gang charges.

Williams and Grant are among three former King Valley Gang accused who had remained behind bars in relation to other crimes, after being freed by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes in July 2020 when that gang trial collapsed.

But, according to evidence led by the Crown, a mere month before the chief justice’s shock ruling, June 2020 to be specific, correctional officers during searches of the cells occupied by Williams and Grant discovered cellular phones which the men claimed belonged to them. The phone claimed by Williams was discovered in the ventilation area at the back of the cell while the handset claimed by Grant was found in the groove beneath a five-gallon water bottle, held in place by a bar of soap. The men were charged under a four-count indictment with one count each of conspiring to murder and concealment of a prohibited article (two cellular phones).

A digital forensics expert brought by the prosecution in April, when the case began, outlined evidence to prove that the confiscated phones truly belonged to the men.

In one of several voice notes played into the records of the tribunal, a voice identified by two Crown witnesses as belonging to Williams was heard saying he had received intelligence that a particular top-flight female investigator had visited the targeted witness on three occasions and that she was supposedly trying to shore up evidence against them, after losing the first case.

On Friday, Supreme Court judge, Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell, in her summation and verdict, set aside arguments by the defence that the voice notes were “disjointed and not sequential” and were not sufficient to prove that the men conspired to murder the witness or anyone else for that matter.

“I found the evidence of [the correctional officer] to be credible…the court finds that the content on the phone support the finding that it belongs to Williams,” Justice Tie-Powell said.

She also said the court accepted the evidence that there was communication between Williams and Grant on their respective phones by way of text messages and WhatsApp voice notes.

She said while aspects of the evidence suggested that other inmates also used the phones, the significant use of the handsets were by the two men. She said the phone owned by Grant had WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and an e-mail account in his name and his alias, Bobby.

In ruling on Count 1 of the indictment which jointly charged the men with conspiring to murder the Westmoreland woman, Justice Tie-Powell said she accepted as credible the voice identification evidence given by a deputy superintendent of police who had encountered both men on several occasions and the Crown witness they had marked for death who testified that she has known Grant all his life.

Justice Tie-Powell said the court, in considering the voice notes which were not in standard English and which contained unique Jamaican terminologies, was of the opinion that, “they are statements made to infer the killing of someone. It is clear to the court that diabolical statements are contained in the voice notes, it is clear there was communication between Derval Williams and Christon Grant”.

In one of the 10 voice notes with the assassination plan which were played into the records of the court, Grant was heard saying if Williams wanted to, “dirt” [slang for murder] the witness, he should, “meck mi know weh yuh want. Anyting yuh a pree, juss let mi know so mi can organise di ting…yuh know di ting, element a surprise”.

Several notes later a voice identified by prosecution witnesses as belonging to Williams is heard saying, “mi ago dirt har man, mi ago dirt har, fi real man. Mi ago do it, mi ago do it”.

Grant was then heard spurring Williams on by saying, “mi wouldn’t mind wi use one stone and kill two bird. Mi woulda juss waan yuh do so and do so and juss slap one, two, three one time an leff di whole place weeping and mourning”.

Said Justice Tie-Powell: “It is my opinion that Christon Grant is agreeing with Derval Williams. It is clear that Grant understood what Williams is talking about; it is significant that he refers to ‘we’ — this suggests they are acting together. He is suggesting that there must be loss, there must be death. He is suggesting that action must be taken quick and fast [as] he emphasised that the situation is serious and needs to be dealt with openly,” said the judge.

According to the evidence, Grant had gone as far as to tell Williams that he would find out the work schedule of the witness in order to organise her death, as the COVID-19 pandemic had made it so that, “everybody deh a dem yard”.

“This is where the intention was, this is where Derval Williams indicates his intention to be party to the murder, the death of the individuals,” the judge stated.

In noting the evidence of the witness who had mentioned her sister and her mother by name, Justice Tie-Powell said mention by the men of those same names was an indication that they intended to kill not only the witness but her family members as well, given the reference by Grant to killing three birds with one stone and leaving “the place weeping and mourning”.

“The inference from the words ‘sista ago leff’ is that something needs to be done to eliminate [the Crown witness], and there is an expressed concern about her sister remaining behind,” added the judge.

Grant, in another voice note, was heard saying “yeh dog, memba dem ooman deh terrible…a whole heap a people dem ooman tun dung…mi nahmeck dem sopm ketch mi — juss a clean up. When yuh a clean up sopm yuh clean up and done”.

According to the judge, “He is saying there must be [no room for] retaliation from anyone. It is clear from these last voice notes that Christon Grant is saying not only [Crown witness] should be eliminated but others as well.” She said also it was clear that the men were confident about their ability to remain in contact “with the outside world”, despite being behind bars.

“The court finds as a fact that: a forensic examination of the cellphones revealed various voice notes, these were the voices of the accused, that these voice notes revealed that there were discussions between Derval Williams and Christon Grant to do an illegal act.

“I find that the Crown has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons conspired with each other and did indeed propose to murder [the Crown witness]. I therefore enter a verdict of guilty on counts one, three and four of the indictment,” Justice Tie-Powell ruled.

On Friday Williams and Grant, who sat side by side in the prisoners’ dock, listened expressionlessly, at one point adopting identical poses by sitting forward attentively, their forearms braced on their legs. The men gave no reaction to the guilty verdict, but for an almost imperceptible smile that tugged at the lips of Williams after he was cuffed and led from the dock.

The sentencing for the men was set for the next court term, which begins in September. A social enquiry report and antecedent report were ordered for both.