Judge begins summation in death squad trial
Published:Friday | June 7, 2019 | 12:21 AMNickoy Wilson/Gleaner Writer
Trial judge Justice Marcia Dunbar Green yesterday began her summation of the evidence in the trial of Detective Corporal Kevin Adams and Constable Jerome Whyte at the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.
The two cops are charged with the murder of Anthony ‘Toby’ Trought in the Clarendon district of Race Track on February 13, 2012.
Before the summation began, attorney-at-law K. Churchill Neita, QC, who is representing Whyte, delivered his closing arguments to the seven-member jury.
He charged the jury to let go of any prejudice that they may have against the police force.
“I want you to disabuse your mind of any preconception and prejudice you may have,” he said.
In his comments, Neita also sought to discredit the Crown’s first witness, saying, “His contradictions perhaps were as much as his convictions.”
During the trial, it was revealed that the Crown’s first witness had multiple convictions in United States for marijuana-related offences.
He also said in reference to the same witness, “He would lie as easily as he drew breath.”
Likening the prosecution’s case to a building, Neita said, “The edifice of the prosecution’s case has crumbled to the dust.”
Yesterday, in a statement given from the dock, the duo insisted that they acted in self-defence, claiming that Trought had fired at them, after which they took evasive action.
Adams and Whyte are among several policemen from the Clarendon Police Division who were, in 2015, charged by the Independent Commission of Investigations for allegedly carrying out extrajudicial killings as part of a so-called death squad based in the parish.