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Accused told cops he was set up to be killed, court hears

Published:Saturday | April 27, 2019 | 12:00 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer

A senior member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force yesterday testified that Odeen ‘Brinks’ Smith made incriminating statements while he was being transported to Kingston after being arrested in Crofts Hill, Clarendon, on December 2, 2017.

“Mi know from mi hand over the gun, mi either a go dead or go prison. Mi know is a set-up. The man set up police fi kill mi. The same weh carry unno fi di the gun. Mi could a tell say sum’n did wrong,” the policewoman quoted the accused as saying.

She was reading from notes which she said she took of Smith’s utterances after warning him that what he said could be used against him as evidence in court.

No context was, however, provided for what the accused allegedly said.

The assistant superintendent, who was testifying in the trial of reputed gang leader Uchence Wilson and his 23 alleged gang members, also said that she executed search warrants and was involved in the arrest of other gang members.

In relation to accused Fitzroy Scott, the policewoman said she visited him on May 12, 2017, when he was in lock-up, to inform him that they would be executing a search warrant on a vehicle said to be owned by him.

SEARCH WARRANT

She said that when the warrant was executed, 13 items were recovered.

She told the court that a list of the items was prepared, which Scott signed.

According to the witness, a search warrant was also executed twice at a house in St Andrew, and on the second occasion, three rims were seized.

The assistant superintendent also said that she was involved in the arrest of Sheldon Cripps and Kerron Walter, otherwise known as ‘Tall Man’.

Earlier in the proceedings, a detective corporal from the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime division testified that he accompanied police officers to a remote location in Cedar Valley, St Catherine, where he took photographs of car parts that were hidden in bushes.

The photographs were shown to the court.

He also collected a DNA swab sample from a plastic cup found at the scene.

Wilson and his 23 alleged gang members are being tried for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act 2014, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation, for crimes allegedly committed between 2015 and 2017.

The group is also being tried for breaches of the Firearms Act.

nickoy.wilson@gleanerjm.com