Accused gangster says arm broken after beating
TED Prince, alias Mawga Man — one of the remaining 27 alleged members of the Klansman Gang currently being tried for various crimes — is alleging that staff at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre where he is being held are responsible for his broken arm.
Prince, who made a complaint to Chief Justice Bryan Sykes on Friday afternoon as the trial was being adjourned, said he sustained the injury to his arm last Thursday but was yet to be taken for an X-ray, as directed by a doctor who assessed him.
“Good afternoon, Your Honour. Yuh know seh from last week mi get a lick pon mi hand an di docta write a X-ray paper fi mi go do X-ray and all [now] mi caan get fi go do the X-ray,” a lisp-tongued Prince complained.
“From last week Thursday…an all now mi caan go, and di officer dem a seh mi a come a court so dem caan bring mi…mi nuh know why dem caan bring mi go hospital and a dem bruck mi hand,” Prince, who has been observed wearing his right arm in a sling, told the judge.
A reliable source with whom the Jamaica Observer spoke said Prince’s arm was broken during a run-in with a warder at the facility.
Justice Sykes, who called the attention of the sergeant manning the prisoners to Prince’s complaints, subsequently informed the disgruntled inmate that the appropriate enquiries and arrangements will be made for him to have his X-ray done, and any other treatment he is supposed to get.
Prince is charged with murder under count 19 of the indictment brought by the Crown. He is also charged under count two which charges the remaining 28 accused with being members of a criminal organisation. Witness Number One, the Crown’s star witness, has alleged that Prince was the triggerman in a failed triple hit allegedly ordered by reputed leader of the gang Andre “Blackman” Bryan in which the real targets had been missed and a bystander shot instead. He also alleged that Prince was also the shooter in the murder of a man in the vicinity of a hardware store in Spanish Town in 2018.
Prince, however, has disputed those allegations, stating that he is a shoemaker and a construction site worker and not a gangster.
The Crown, in opening its case on September 20, said the accused individuals who comprise the “Blackman faction” of the gang, under Bryan’s leadership had various roles in which they acted as “killers, drivers, lookout men or watchmen, gunsmiths and foot soldiers”.
The Crown is alleging that the accused, between 2015 and 2019, carried out a range of murders, conspiracies to murder, extortion and arson throughout the parish. It said the gang’s headquarters at Jones Avenue in Spanish Town was used by gang members for planning their exploits and was also where briefing and debriefing in respect of crimes took place. The court also heard that this was where transactions such as the sale and purchase of guns to carry out murders were done. Several members of the gang in their roles as foot soldiers, the court was told, were responsible for ensuring that murders ordered were executed and that extortion monies were collected.
The accused are being tried under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) (Amendment) Act, commonly called the anti-gang legislation, with several facing additional charges under the Firearms Act for crimes allegedly committed between 2015 and 2019.
The matter resumes on Monday at 10:00 am when the chief juutice will continue his summation.