Crime scene investigator testifies about brief interaction with one defendant
SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — A crime scene investigator, who visited Barnett Street Police Station where Mario Deane was beaten in 2014, has identified one of the three cops on trial — District Constable Marlon Grant — as the person who was asked to take him to the cell where the incident took place.
“This District Constable Grant who escorted you to this cell block, do you see him here today?” the prosecutor asked as the Mario Deane trial continued in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Friday.
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“Yes, he is sitting in the [prisoner’s] dock,” replied the witness.
There was no visible expression from Grant, who sat and listened from the dock.
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Also on trial are Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constable Juliana Clevon. They are charged with manslaughter, and misconduct in a public office.
The Crown’s seventh witness told the court that on August 3, 2014, he was stationed at Summit Police Station in St James. The witness said he received a request for a forensic crime scene investigator to visit Barnett Street Police Station where there was a case of wounding with intent.
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The witness said he and a detective sergeant left for the scene and arrived at Barnett Street Police Station about 1:30 pm.
The witness said he saw a detective sergeant at the station and asked the reason for the request. The witness said he was informed of the reason before he requested to see the scene. He said District Constable Grant was asked to take him to the cell block. The witness, in giving his testimony in chief, told the court he did not know Grant or his Christian name.
“How did you get the name of the person who was escorting you?” asked the prosecutor.
The witness replied that he got it from the detective sergeant at Barnett Street Police Station.
The detective also said there was little interaction between Grant and himself, and the interaction lasted less than five minutes.
“He simply escorted me to the cell block and showed me the cell where the incident occurred,” stated the witness.
The witness, who has 22 years service in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), also testified about procedural matters at Negril Police Station where he started his career by performing regular duties such as being a station guard. He was in that role between 2003 and 2009.
However, Martin Thomas, the lawyer representing Stewart and Grant, objected to the Crown’s line of questioning by challenging the relevance of what happened between 2003 and 2009.
Thomas referred to the testimony of the Crown’s second witness in the case, a deputy superintendent of police who was the zone commander with responsibility for Barnett Street Police Station in 2014. That witness spoke about a JCF revised lock-up administration policy.
“[The Crown’s] witness told us that there is a policy that governs how lockups are treated among police that operate at the lock-ups when dealing with prisoners. He also told us that this policy was reviewed in 2009 and it was subsequently reviewed after 2014 and my friend specifically asked him to give us the evidence about the policy in place around 2014,” argued Thomas.
“What I am saying, My Lord, is this: based on the witnesses who came before, what was happening when [the witness] was working at a lock-up in Westmoreland was governed by a different policy from the policy that governed what was happening at Barnett Street. And again, I will say that I cannot see the relevance,” the defence lawyer added.
Presiding Judge Justice Courtney Daye later ruled that the questioning of the police and procedures regarding cell duties is relevant in this trial. However, he expressed concern that there may be repetition of material already presented during the trial.
Meanwhile, at the start of Friday’s sitting, defence lawyer Dalton Reid, who is representing Clevon, picked up from where his colleague ended his cross-examination of the sixth witnesses — a crime scene examiner. Among the questions asked by Reid was whether there had been the collection of a toxicology report that would show the stomach intake. However, the witness was unable to say if a toxicology report was done and collected.
The seventh witness is expected to continue with his testimony before being cross-examined by lawyers representing the three cops when the court resumes from adjournment on Tuesday, April 8 at 10:00 am.
The allegations in the case are that Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody, where he was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014. He sustained severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.
It is alleged that the three cops were on duty at the police station when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Corporal Stewart, who has an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.
