Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator
Tom Tavares-Finson, the lawyer defending Vybz Kartel, has described the prosecution's case against the deejay as a conspiratorial lie.
The attorney was addressing the 11-member jury yesterday after the defence closed its case in the Home Circuit Court. Tavares-Finson said the prosecution's case has been left dressed in incompetence.
He pointed to the missing original copy of the main witness's statement to the police and a sealed compact disc from Digicel containing original evidence of text messages. He also highlighted the notebook lost by Senior Superintendent Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford. He said the prosecution's main witness lied when he said he did not write a letter to the public defender.
Tavares-Finson also criticised the evidence given by former Cybercrimes head, Sergeant Patrick Linton, and pointed out that the BlackBerry phone allegedly taken from Kartel was being used while in the custody of Ford at Flying Squad. He said Linton had only admitted that during cross-examination.
He reminded the jury that Linton had said he could not speak to the integrity of the phone and that he had locked the phone in his locker and left the key on top. He told the jurors that they had been left to judge a case tampered with and discredited by dishonesty and incompetence. He called on the jury to return a verdict for Jamaica to stop the slackness because no one was going to be safe if what happened in the case before them continued.
After Tavares-Finson completed his address, Jeremy Taylor, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, said it was an ordinary murder case. He showed the jurors a photograph of Clive 'Lizard' Williams and reminded them that there was a real person at the base of the trial.
Taylor said Palmer was judge, jury, and executioner of Williams. He called on the jury to determine the case purely on the evidence before them. He continues his address today.
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