Another witness lined up to testify in a murder trial has been mowed down by a vengeful attacker bent on preventing the individual from implicating the prime suspect, Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson has confirmed.
He disclosed that two weeks ago a second person connected with a high profile murder case was shot multiple times following two attempts that were made on the life of a 16- year-old witness.
The 2004 murder of Ruthmae Alfred Pinder and the attempted murder of her daughter Calvonya Grant as they disembarked a jitney baffled the community. But it was the subsequent attack on the minor months later that emerged as another grave concern for authorities.
“The fact that a [16 year old] kid was shot twice in order to prevent her from testifying in the courts you can’t be more serious than that in terms of that particular offence of intimidating witnesses,” Commissioner Farquharson said while appearing on the Love 97 programme Policing Today.
“We had a case [week before last] where another witness in the same case was shot multiple times simply to eliminate the witness from testifying in a murder trial.”
Police have conceded that witness tampering and the intimidation of witnesses remains a challenge for the administration of justice, hence the bill that the government tabled last year to formalize a system of protection for them.
Commissioner Farquharson acknowledged that the system is a very expensive one that requires vast resources, but he suggested that it is well worth the effort.
Over the last few months Mr. Farquharson has reportedly met with the Director of Public Prosecutions Bernard Turner trying to fine-tune the mechanism that is being proposed.
The Police Commissioner decried the element of lawlessness that exists in the country.
“That is the way we are going. Society is headed down that road. We have to cut it off holistically because the whole system would break down. We have these serious violent offences being committed by criminals. They must be dealt with- very efficiently and quickly,” he said.
Last May, months after being remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison for allegedly murdering Ruthmae Pinder, Angelo “Nasty” Brennen was charged with conspiring to kill her daughter, Calvonya.
Grant, a key witness in Brennen’s murder trail, was shot twice in the back after two masked gunmen entered her grandmother’s Prison Lane home where she went to live after her mother’s murder, according to police.
The girl was shot in her thigh in the October 2004 incident on Farrington Road.
Authorities believe that Brennen and his older brother, Cordell, are responsible for attempting to end her life in the morning hours of April 30.
The brothers were arraigned separately, charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Brennen has already been found guilty of murder.
They were also charged with conspiracy to cause two other witnesses, Aaron Woodside and Leander Culmer, from giving evidence in the court proceedings.
Even Prime Minister Perry Christie had commented on the matter indicating that officials were considering having the girl moved to an overseas medical facility while doctors continued to treat her.
Mr. Farquharson said even though the police did not have the legal framework in place last year, it still protected witnesses. He promised that very early this year concrete steps will be taken to get the process off the ground.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
