Former Stone Crusher gang leader killed in MoBay

WESTERN BUREAU:Eldon Calvert, once Jamaica's most wanted man and notorious Stone Crusher gangster, has been shot dead by gunmen.

Senior Superintendent Egbert Parkins, the head of the St James Police Division, told The Gleaner last night that Calvert was killed in Salt Spring, St James, earlier in the day.

He could not, however, outline the circumstances of his death.

Calvert attracted attention in February 2012 after he was freed of a murder charge when the court held that the investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Michael Sirjue, fabricated the evidence.

When the murder case against Calvert and two other men had to be thrown out, Senior Puisne judge Gloria Smith had remarked that it was "a very sad day in the history of justice".

Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn had said she could not proceed with the case because handwriting experts for the defence and the Crown confirmed the witness statement was written and signed by Sirjue.

Llewellyn said she was told that Sirjue had fled the island.

Calvert was on trial along with his brother, music band operator Gleason Calvert, and Michael Heron for the 2006 murder of cookshop operator Robert Green of Mount Salem, St James. The prosecution was relying on the statement of Artley Campbell to prove its case against the three men. Campbell was shot and killed on November 13, 2006.

Sirjue wrote a statement purporting that Campbell had given it on November 14, 2006, but the date was subsequently altered to October 14, 2006.

As a result of the case, a policy was put in place that all statements to be put into evidence in cases where witnesses are dead or cannot be found would be examined by a handwriting expert.