(Jamaica Gleaner) A day after he testified that he saw Police Constable Collis ‘Chucky’ Brown shooting his friend, a witness yesterday denied lying to the Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM).
The witness on Tuesday testified that he and his now-deceased friend Robert ‘Gutty’ Dawkins, along with two others, visited a bar in Palmers Cross, May Pen, Clarendon on January 10, 2009, before Dawkins was killed.
The witness said that he and Dawkins rode bicycles to the bar while the other men walked.
However, when he was asked during cross-examination by Brown’s lawyer, Norman Godfrey, if he gave a statement to INDECOM saying he and his three friends all rode bicycles to the bar, he denied saying that in his statement.
“Me nuh know of that part,” he said.
The witness said he told the investigators that only he and Dawkins were on bicycles.
The statement from INDECOM was then read to him and he agreed that he gave it.
But when Godfrey asked him if there was any reason why he lied to the INDECOM officers, he denied doing so.
The witness insisted that he told the officers that only he and Dawkins rode bicycles and that was the truth.
Brown also sought to highlight another inconsistency in a statement given to INDECOM and the witness testimony pertaining to what Brown was wearing on the day of the shooting.
The witness on Tuesday told the court that Brown was dressed in a black overall, resembling a uniform that the police sometimes wear. He also testified that men who came to the scene in a grey car were similarly dressed.
But during cross examination he admitted that he told the INDECOM investigator that Brown, on the day of the shooting, was wearing a gown.
However, when asked if they were not different things, he said he did not know them differently.
Constable Brown, who has been in custody since 2014, is being tried for the murders of Dawkins on January 10, 2009 and Andrew Fearon and Dwayne Douglas both in December 13, 2012.
Brown is also to be tried on a charge of conspiracy and wounding with intent.