King Valley Gang Trial | Sykes tosses witness’ explanation for inconsistent statements
Published:Wednesday | July 8, 2020 | 12:23 AMDanae Hyman/Staff Reporter
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes yesterday rejected the reason the main witness in the King Valley Gang trial gave for inconsistencies in his statement given to the police and that given as evidence in court.
Last Friday, attorney-at-law Everton Bird was successful in his request to have the witness recalled to the stand to address the discrepancies.
According to Bird, the witness said in one statement that he was not at the location when the house of a now-deceased member of the gang called ‘Nah Laugh’ was razed and his mother’s house shot up. However, in evidence provided to the court, the witness had said that he was there.
Bird represents accused gang member Copeland ‘Tupac’ Sankey.
During cross-examination yesterday morning, the witness – a self-proclaimed former member of the Westmoreland-based gang who cannot be named due a court order – said that he stood by all statements made and the discrepancy must be a mistake.
“I gave a lot of statements and all of them is true. I was talking about the time they went to Nah Laugh, but maybe there was some mistake there. I don’t know,” he said, testifying via a video link from an undisclosed location.
Asked by Sykes if the mistake was made by the police or himself, he said that possibly by both, based on how fast he was speaking.
Bird urged the court to discredit the witness’ entire narrative.
During his summation, Sykes said the explanation given by the witness would not suffice.
“(Witness’ name removed) said he read over the statement. There is no evidence to suggest that he is not literate. He has clearly spent some time in the classroom. He is not an idiot by any stretch of the imagination,” Sykes said. “The explanation he gave was not an eligible explanation based on the stark difference he gave to the police and what he said in court.”
The chief justice also noted that there was a serious lack of evidence in the case.
Lindell Powell, Carlington Godfrey, Rannaldo McKennis, Christon Grant, Derval Williams, Copeland Sankey are on trial for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act, commonly called the anti-gang legislation, in relation to crimes committed between 2016 and 2018.
Sykes is expected to continue his summation today.