Audio recordings in Kartel juror bribery case unreliable, says witness
Published:Friday | October 4, 2019 | 12:09 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer
An expert witness yesterday testified that two audio recordings of conversations said to be between the female foreman and Livingston Cain, the juror accused of attempting to bribe the jury in the 2014 trial of dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel, were tampered with.
Cain is facing five counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice and one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The recordings were taken from a BlackBerry mobile phone believed to have been used to record the conversations.
An information technology professional with over 20 years’ experience told the court that he found clear evidence of splicing in the audio files.
He also said that the stop time for the recording was too clean, suggesting that the audio had been edited.
The expert was testifying yesterday in the trial for Cain at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in St Andrew.
Using audiovisual equipment, he also noted that the clarity of the foreman’s voice, when compared to that of the accused, raises suspicion.
It was revealed that no forensic image, which would be a replica of the data on the mobile device, was made.
In the absence of this, the expert said, the forensic integrity of the recordings could not be validated and thus were unreliable.
Vybz Kartel, who real name is Adidja Palmer, was in 2014 convicted for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams. He will be eligible for parole after 35 years.
The trial is set to continue on October 23.