(Jamaica Observer) Shantol Gordon, the girlfriend of reputed gang leader Uchence Wilson, yesterday denied transporting guns for the gang in her newborn baby’s bag while carrying the child as a cover.
“I would never place a firearm in my baby bag. I would never involve my baby in any harm or danger,” she said under cross-examination from the prosecutor yesterday while giving sworn testimony in the Home Circuit Court.
“You were driven by Devin Taylor to collect the guns on the instruction of Mr Wilson,” the prosecutor said.
But Gordon responded: “I have not known Mr Devin Taylor until I came to court in 2017.”
She also denied knowing another alleged gang member, who goes by the name “Jason” and who had allegedly given her the guns wrapped in a shirt.
Earlier during the ongoing trial, a Crown witness who is an ex-member of the gang testified that following the robbery of a taximan in St Catherine, the 28-year-old mother of two, who was acting on the instructions of her babyfather, came with her newborn child and collected firearms from the gang members.
Gordon also denied keeping firearms for the gang at the home she shared with Wilson, who is the father of her two children.
The Crown witness had also testified that Gordon’s role in the gang, as well, included pawning stolen items.
However, the woman, who described herself as an entrepreneur who sells clothing as well as rears pigs, goats and chickens, said she only pawned personal items when she was low on funds. She said, too, that she had pawned her cellular phone — which was seized by the police — more than five times.
During her testimony, she said: “I am not part of any gang. I have never been and never will be, and I have never participated in any criminal activities.”
She also denied knowing of Wilson’s alleged involvement in the gang, and further denied making arrangements and a payment of $90,000 to a Manchester-based medical doctor to treat Wilson, who had received gunshot wounds to the leg and back.
While being cross-examined by attorney Peter Champagnie about how she knew his client Corporal Lloyd Knight, and the nature of their relationship, Gordon disclosed that she had met him in Linstead, St Catherine, and that they had exchanged numbers and flirted with each other.
During a break shortly afterwards, one of the accused in the matter, Dayne Edwards, was overheard asking Gordon: “How yuh have man and a flirt?”
Edwards, who earlier gave sworn testimony in his defence, also denied being part of the gang or taking part in any illegal activities.
According to the bus conductor, he was shot in both legs in February 2016 and had to regularly attend orthopaedic clinic for treatment. He said, too, that before he could recover, he was again shot in December of that year, this time in his arm and back. He said he suffered a broken arm.
In the meantime, a 60-year-old retired teacher, who was a character witness and gave evidence yesterday on behalf of accused Michael ‘Judge’ Lamonth, said she knew him to be a jovial, polite and hard-working farmer.
According to her, she was surprised when she learnt that he had been imprisoned on allegations of being involved in a gang, as she did not know him to be that kind of person.
When asked if there was anything bad she knew about him she said: “The only bad thing I know about him is the heap a girls dem him have, him a ‘gyallis’. I always encourage him to ease off the girls dem fi a while.”
Wilson and 18 other alleged members of the gang are being tried for various offences under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation, and for offences under the Firearms Act.
Corporal Lloyd Knight is expected to present his case when the matter resumes on Monday before Chief Justice Bryan Sykes.
