Jury watches video of 2016 gas station shooting
Published:Tuesday | October 16, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Thomas – Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The jury in the murder trial of brothers O’Neil and O’Brian Walters, who are charged with the shooting death of Kahni Erskine following a daring daylight gun attack at a St James gas station in 2016, were shown video footage of the incident in court on Tuesday.
The Walters brothers are accused of taking part in the brazen attack which occurred on September 22, 2016, and was caught on video. Their trial began on October 9.
During Tuesday’s continuation of the trial, presiding High Court Justice Sharon George approved the prosecution’s application for footage taken from the gas station’s closed-circuit television system to be admitted into evidence, despite defence attorney Christopher Townsend's efforts to block the application.
Townsend opposed the application moments after cross-examining a police constable from the Cyber-Forensic and Communication Unit, who extracted the video from the gas station's security system the day after the shooting.
“Are you aware that this video went viral?” Townsend asked the officer during cross-examination.
“Not to the best of my knowledge,” the officer replied.
“Can you say whether or not this video was tampered with before you extracted it?” Townsend enquired.
“It cannot be tampered with,” the officer answered resolutely.
In making her ruling, Justice George said there were no grounds to oppose the video's admission into evidence.
“The video is relevant and admissible, and I find there is no room (justification) for its exclusion,” said George.
The court also heard statements from three other police witnesses, which were read to the jury in the absence of the officers. One of the statements came from a police sergeant who conducted the identification parade in which O’Brian Walters was identified.
The trial will resume on Wednesday, October 17.
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