THE prosecution's chief witness yesterday admitted that he had lied to the court on Wednesday when he said that he had witnessed the beating and fatal shooting of his teenage friend by the police in 2007.
The witness' admission was made during cross-examination from Valerie Neita-Robertson, one of the attorneys representing the four policemen who are currently being tried for murder in the September 27, 2007 death of 18-year-old André Thomas of Grants Pen in St Andrew.
The witness said under cross-examination by Robertson that he was in the company of other men, including Thomas, when he received a telephone call and ran home when he was told that police were coming their way.
According to the witness, he only returned to the scene of the shooting after the incident had occurred and had "picked up" from the crowd gathered at the scene the version of the events he gave to the police in his statement.
The witness had told the court during his evidence-in-chief on Wednesday that the four policemen — Clayton Fearon, Noel Bryan, Phillip Dunstan and Omar Miller — came to where he, Thomas and other men were at a shop along the bank of the Grants Pen gully. He had also told the jurors in the Home Circuit Court trial that he saw, from his position in the shop, one of the cops, whom he identified as Clayton, using a piece of board to beat Thomas before the shooting.
Yesterday, the witness told Neita-Robertson that he never saw any of the policemen. He also said that he felt compelled to tell the truth and that he had testified as he did on Wednesday because he was taken to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution on Wednesday and told by a man named Thomas to "stick to the story".
For most of his cross-examination yesterday, the witness appeared uneasy as he stood propped up against the witness box, his head hung and a hand in his pocket.
During re-examination, the witness told prosecuting attorney Kathy Pyke that he had lied in his statement to the police because he was angry over Thomas's death.
The witness said he did not see any of the policemen on trial at the gully bank on the day of the shooting.
