By Robert A. Emmanuel
Technical issues and general confusion over video evidence dominated the majority of yesterday’s proceedings in the Bruce Greenaway murder trial.
The high profile case into the killing of the Falmouth father-of-two, whose body was found on April 13 2020 at Indian Creek, got underway six weeks ago.
Police officer Jason Modeste and Defence Force soldiers Shakiel Thomas, Armal Warner and Aliyah Martin are on trial for strangling Greenaway.
On Tuesday, the trial continued to hear evidence from cyber forensic specialist Owen Rigby regarding footage from Bailey’s supermarket where Rigby told the court he had observed an individual fitting Greenaway’s description coming into the supermarket for the period 11.11am to 11.27am and 1pm to around 1.30pm on April 9 2020.
However, Justice Colin Williams, presiding over the case, was visibly confused after the first video footage shown to the courtroom that displayed the inside of the supermarket was less than two minutes long.
The judge said that he had given his approval for two sets of video footage from the supermarket to be shown – one that contained the footage from 11.11am to 11.27am and the other containing the footage from 1pm to 1.30pm.
It was also clear that the cyber analyst could not give a precise time for what was shown on the two-minute video. After being pressed by the judge, he was only able to say that “it was some time after 11am”.
The defence argued that the two-minute video prejudiced their case as it showed the portion beneficial to the prosecution’s case.
Attorney Lawrence Daniels, who is representing one of the defendants, opined that the “issue of timing” has been a persistent problem throughout the trial.
However, after resolving that issue, the second video clip was displayed showing the outside of the supermarket.
Corporal Rigby claimed that clip, at 11.16am, showed an individual fitting the description of Greenaway come to the supermarket.
The trial, which was meant to resume in the afternoon with more video evidence, was adjourned until 9am today due to lead prosecutor and former St Kitts and Nevis Director of Public Prosecutions, Valston Graham, falling ill.
There are four defence lawyers in the matter – Andrew O’Kola who represents Thomas, Sherfield Bowen for Warner, Wendel Robinson who represents Modeste, and Daniels for Martin.
