Defense pursues white car in murder trial

The trial of Raziel Jeffers, for the murder of Damion Ming, continued on Friday with defense counsel Michael Wolkind asking crown witnesses about reports of a white car near the scene of the fatal shooting on the night of March 25, 2010. 

Mr. Ming’s body was found under a boat trailer in a yard off Birch Tree Hill Road, West Bay, after police responded to a report of gunshots in the area. 

Earlier in the week, Justice Malcolm Swift and the jury of seven men and five women heard other references to a white car. 

First, when questioned by Mr. Wolkind, boat mechanic Earl Stillwell Ebanks confirmed that a neighbor had come over right after the shooting. The neighbor told him that two men dressed in black got into a white car that raced off after the shooting. 

Asked if he also saw the two men, Mr. Ebanks said no. He reiterated his earlier evidence that he saw a man on a bicycle on Swallow Road, onto which the yard backed, tucking an object he believed may have been a gun into the waistband of his trousers. Mr. Ebanks said his neighbor had told him he saw two people running from the back of the house. 

A police officer who was one of the first to arrive in the area told Mr. Wolkind a man had given him information about two men running off toward Swallow Road. Asked when he went back to interview this man, the officer replied that he did not go back. 

Andrew Radcliffe, the senior counsel who leads the prosecution, asked if this witness was the investigating officer in the case. He said he was not, and he had not been tasked with collecting a statement from that man. Mr. Radcliffe asked if the man who gave the officer the information was actually at the scene of the shooting. The officer said he was approached in another yard. 

On Friday, several police officers’ statements were read into evidence. One referred to receiving information that two males may have left the scene in a white vehicle from Swallow Lane. 

Senior Constable Adrian Neblett, who presented his evidence in person, said he had recorded the statements of witnesses and made house-to-house inquiries. Asked if he had been directed to an address where a man had said he saw two men run off Swallow Lane to a white vehicle, Mr. Neblett replied, “There was such information, sir.”  

Earlier in his evidence, Mr. Neblett said he and other officers went to Jeffers’s residence in George Town with a search warrant on April 9, 2010. A number of items were seized, but nothing relevant to this matter. 

Mr. Neblett said he conducted an interview with Jeffers that same month after the defendant met with attorney Lloyd Samson. He said Jeffers was given the old form of caution – that he was not obliged to say anything, but anything he said would be taken down in writing and could be used in a court of law. 

At that stage, Mr. Samson was not present, but he could have been if Jeffers had wanted him there. Mr. Neblett said Jeffers gave his name, address and date of birth, and then replied “no comment” to the remainder of questions put to him. 

Mr. Wolkind asked if Jeffers had made it perfectly clear that Mr. Samson advised him to remain silent. And despite that advice, it was perfectly proper and fair to continue questions and present the prosecution’s case to see how Jeffers responded. Mr. Neblett replied, “Yes, sir.” 

He agreed that one of the questions he put to Jeffers was that Jeffers and one other male had gone to the address where there was a group of men, some of whom were replacing a boat engine, both Jeffers and the other man targetted Damion Ming and fired several shots. 

The trial continues on Monday morning.