Guilty plea ends trial

The trial of Joseph Hurlston on
charges of importation of firearms and possession of firearms and ammunition
ended on 9 November when Hurlston pleaded guilty to the charge of importation
of firearms. The other charges were left on file.

Hurlston’s charges stemmed from an
incident in the East End district in April when police were conducting an
operation code named HERD.

RCIPS officer Damian Maxwell
testified that he and Officer Roderick Evans were involved in the operation,
which started at about 11pm on 19 April. He said while they were conducting
surveillance, they observed four men dressed in dark clothing walking across
the road in the vicinity of Seaview Road.

“They walked on the left side of
the road and went on to the beach. Officer Evans had night vision apparatus and
saw three of the males getting onto a small boat. One stayed on shore while the
boat left and travelled in an easterly direction. The male on the beach
appeared to be on a cell phone,” said Officer Maxwell.

He said the activity was relayed to
the Command Centre.

At about 3am on 20 April, the
officers were told to go to a location opposite the East End Public Library. On
arrival, Maxwell said he saw Joseph Hurlston in police custody, wearing
handcuffs. Maxwell said one of the officers pointed to an area, where he
observed a dark coloured handgun on the ground.

He said he spoke to Hurlston, who
admitted getting a ride to Cayman on a canoe captained by a Jamaican male
transporting ganga. The officer said Hurlston said that a local boat had met
them out at sea and the drugs were transferred to that boat, adding that he got
on the boat and while making their way to shore, the boat capsized. He said he
swam to shore, but the drugs were left floating in the ocean. He also mentioned
a backpack that belonged to him and said it had some of his personal items, as
well as guns, cocaine and hash. 

Senior Police Constable attached to
the Marine Unit, Marl Luke, testified that he was called into work in relation
to an incident that occurred the night before in East End. He said he and two
other officers departed the Spotts Marina on board a police boat and made their
way around to the East End area.

Once there, the officers were asked
to do a search for a knapsack that might contain items from the canoe, during
which a bag matching the description mentioned was sighted. Officer Luke said
visibility was clear and the bottom could be seen, adding that he jumped into
the water and recovered the bag.

Upon examination, the bag was found
to contain the contents Hurlston had stated while in handcuffs on the beach, in
addition to his passport, as well as a black wallet with his driver’s licence and
bank card.

Defence Attorney Lucy Organ had
apparently hoped to have an interview thrown out in which Hurlston made
admissions to officers that included him saying that he went to St. Ann,
Jamaica, to buy firearms from a man named “Yellow,” who he said was the same
man who escaped police custody in the Cayman Islands some months earlier.
Hurlston also told police that the bag was his and that he went out on a boat
to meet people on the ocean who gave him the bag and its contents for CI$200.
He said “Yellow” ripped him off and he got nothing out of the deal, and
therefore could not return to Cayman the way he intended, leading to him having
to get a ride on a canoe.

After the interview was played and
after a brief adjournment, Hurlston’s attorney conversed privately with Crown
Prosecutor John Masters. She then asked that the indictment be read to her
client again. Hurlston subsequently entered his guilty plea to importation of
firearms. The other charges were left on record at the request of Mr. Masters,
who later explained that as part of the deal between him and Ms Organ, the
Crown agreed to take a plea to the most serious of the charges and not waste
the court’s time with a case in which the evidence was so overwhelming.