The defence described the prosecution’s second witness in the one don Klansman trial on Friday, November 19, as a non-violent member of a violent gang, who ascended to a top tier position within a year of joining.
They are convinced the former gang member turned Crown witness is downplaying his role in the criminal organization. The trial is 30 days in, and only the two key witnesses have so far given evidence against the alleged gang leader Andre ‘Blakman’ Bryan and his 32 co-accused. The defence continued cross-examination of the second witness who maintains he was forced into the Klansman gang.
On Thursday it was revealed that the witness was offered money by two members of the gang, Termite, and Sick-head as a bribe to not testify against them. Sick-head, who has been identified as Lamar Simpson, is on trial, and termite was released from police custody.
Meanwhile, Attorney Michael Lorne asked the witness to describe himself, to which he responded “I’m a genuine person…” Lorne went down a seemingly personal road when he questioned the witness about a game he played in the river with some of the defendants.
Lorne asked… “you were comfortable playing a game in the river with a bagga man, and you see nothing wrong with that”. The witness replied, “no sir, you don’t play football with a bagga man.”
Lorne suggested that the witness is testifying against his client Kemar Harrison because Harrison was involved with his on-and-off girlfriend who made a surprise entrance in court earlier this week. Attorney Zara Lewis, representing the defendant Roel Taylor suggested that the witness did not know Taylor and that her client had an identical twin brother.
Attorney for Joseph Mcdermott, Sasha-Kay Shaw asserts that it is a coincidence that the witness gave evidence suggesting her client wanted to drink blood from the skull of a man, the same day it was reported in the media that a man seen in a viral video drinking goat blood was murdered. She accused the witness of making things up to cause sensation in the media, but the witness disagreed.
Another attorney thought it was convenient how the witness gave multiple statements to the police over 8 months and left out critical information, but came to court to fill in the blanks in less than a month. The witness maintains that he was unable to give the police every detail, the matter was adjourned and will resume on Monday, November 22.
Lorne pressed further that the witness on Thursday could not remember a female’s name, but he remembered the names of men, the witness stated “yes sir I remember cause I know them for more than a year”
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