THE trial of the juror accused of trying to bribe his colleagues in the Vybz Kartel murder case is scheduled to begin today in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court following yesterday’s delay.
The accused, Livingston Cain, is to be tried on five counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice and one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The Crown is alleging that the 50-year-old football coach offered the jury foreman in the Kartel murder trial $500,000 for a not-guilty verdict. It is also alleged that he told another juror that he would “take care of him” if he returned a not-guilty verdict.
He was reportedly recorded on a cellular phone making the offer to the foreman.
Cain was the only juror to vote not guilty in the conviction of Vybz Kartel (Adidja Palmer), Shaw ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Andre St John, and Kahira Jones. A fifth man, Shane Williams, was acquitted.
The trial was scheduled to start yesterday, but was rescheduled after the defence raised concerns regarding difficulties faced in obtaining certain documents that would strengthen its case.
Livingston’s lawyer, Valerie Neita-Robertson, informed the magistrate that a cellular phone, from which the prosecution had collected some recordings, had disappeared and could not be found.
In light of the absence of the cellphone, which is the original source of the recording, she indicated that she wanted the phone records of the cellular phone and urged the prosecution to assist the defence in getting the phone records as it was in the interest of a fair trial.
Prosecutor Sophia Thomas from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution pointed out that the phone records had no relevance to the recordings.
As a result, Neita-Robertson asked the presiding magistrate, Maxine Ellis, to assist her in getting the phone records from telecommunication company Digicel.
At the same time, the lawyer complained to the court that the registrar at the Supreme Court had not responded to the defence’s request for a list of jurors who had worked during the murder case.
Consequently, the magistrate instructed the investigating officer to make a formal request to the Communication Forensic and Cybercrime Unit to get the phone records from Digicel. She also gave instructions for the DDP to write to the registrar at the Supreme Court to find out if the request had been received and whether or not the registrar was having any difficulties meeting the request.
Jamaica unnu nuh realize say when unnu do dese tings people take wi fi joke. Ok fine di cell phone missing, but where are the recordings that were collected?
Licky licky Livingston ah go meet him Waterloo in dis