An officer of Her Majesty's Prison testified before the coroner's inquest that he saw deceased prisoner Neil Brown being escorted onto a prison bus alive and under his own power.
On the second day of the inquest into prison officer Dion Bowles and prison inmate Neil Brown's death, prison officer Dennis Johnson said that on Monday, January 16, sometime between 11.30pm and midnight, while on duty in the maximum security section of the prison the sirens went off.
After heading to the minimum security section of the prison, where inmates were reported to have been on the roof, he scaled the prison fence onto Yamacraw Road because he had heard noises coming from that area.
Once outside the prison walls, he reported seeing law enforcement officials guarding several inmates sitting on the side of the road, among them prisoners Forrester Bowe and Brown.
He revealed in his testimony that Brown was searched and found in possession of corridor keys, supposedly to cell block C of the maximum security section.
He later testified that he personally assisted another prisoner, Barry Parcoi, onto one of the prison buses which was present. Parcoi, Johnson also testified, was found in possession of a homemade dagger.
Recounting what happened after he put Parcoi on the bus, Johnson said as he was returning to the prison, he saw the bus pulling away with the prisoners from the Yamacraw Road area that he had just left.
Questioned by prosecutor Bernard Turner as to the actions of the inmates and their condition when he saw them seated on the side of the street, Mr Johnson said that in the limited light of night, he did not see the inmates doing anything in particular, and that they were quiet. Bowe's face, he said, appeared to be dirty. Bowe's dirty face, he said, prevented him from recognizing Bowe right away, as he is "bright" skinned.
Magistrate Linda Virgill asked Johnson whether all of the inmates were alive when he saw them being taken onto the bus. He replied: "Yes."
Corporal Johnson, a 19-year veteran of the prison force, spoke only of a little blood on the face of Forrester Bowe, but he admitted that even Bowe looked healthy when he saw him.
Johnson told the court that when he returned to the west wing of the prison be observed that bars on some cells had been cut.
Throughout the proceeding, lawyer Turner questioned several officers about the layout of the maximum security wing and how movement through the compound is facilitated.
He said that the C block, from where the prisoners escaped, was "H" shaped, with a corridor separating each of the wings housing prisoners.
Inmates Brown, Bowe, and McCoy were housed in a section of the C block with cell numbers 1 through 15. The corridor, which separates this section of the block from cells 16 through 25, which housed escapee Hepburn as well as Ellison Smith, was always kept locked.
Prison officer Michael Minns testified that at the end of his shift on the night in question, around l0pm, he handed the keys to the corridors to Officer Sands. These keys were the same keys that were supposedly found on prison escapee Neil Brown at the time of his capture.
In his testimony earlier, Corporal Johnson pointed out that only officers making checks would have access to the keys. However, Minns reiterated as a part of his testimony that the keys to the corridors would not have opened cell doors. Those the court learned, were kept in the prison armory.
During the inquest, it was never revealed whether any of the five officers on duty in the maximum security section physically checked cell bars during the night shift, as officers said that the normal check is in the form of a body count.
Court was adjourned to l0am today, when witnesses in yesterday's inquest will return to read their testimonies into the record and the remaining witnesses will be called to testify.
By MARK HUMES, The Tribune
