A defense attorney has dismissed suggestions from the prosecution’s main witness that her client, a soldier, is a member of the One Don faction of the Clansman gang.
Roxane Smith, representing defendant Jermaine Robinson, a member of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), accused the former gangster-turned-witness of fabricating stories about her client.
The male witness had previously testified that Robinson was the bodyguard of Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan, the alleged leader of the One Don gang.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, Smith pressed the witness about why he did not mention Robinson when he initially began his testimony.
The witness responded by claiming that, initially, he did not recognize the army man.
But the lawyer insisted that the witness was a liar, pointing out that her client had graduated from the JDF in 2016 and was deployed to St James shortly after.
This, she said, led to her client “hardly having free time”.
The witness told the court that he did not know when Robinson graduated from the army but maintained that he was a member of the gang.
Still, Smith revealed information that suggested that Robinson could not have been a member of the gang or acted as Bryan’s bodyguard as suggested by the witness.
She said that in 2017, her client was transferred to Up Park and was in a special program that restricted him from leaving the army’s base.
The witness said he was not aware of that, but maintained his stance that Robinson visited his home and was guarding Bryan. He also testified that the army man had a gun during the time he watched over the alleged gang leader that night.
Meanwhile, Smith continued to suggest that the witness was telling lies on another client, Jahzeel Blake, who she is representing in the trial.
Blake, according to his attorney, was employed at a welding company in 2015 and was not a member of the gang.
“You are making up stories as you go along,” Smith told the witness, a self-styled former banker of the gang.
The trial, which is being presided over by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes is to resume on Thursday.
Bryan, 31 other men, and a woman are being tried in the Home Circuit Court under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations Act), 2014, better known as the anti-gang legislation, on an indictment with 25 counts, for allegedly being part of a criminal organization, in the judge-alone trial.
Bryan and his co-accused have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The men and the woman have been charged with multiple offenses, including being part of a criminal organization, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, facilitating conspiracy to murder, and facilitating arson.
The offenses allegedly occurred between January 1, 2015, and June 30, 2019, in St Catherine.
