And while that attorney hasn't been charged yet, another attorney was in court today after he was charged with abetment to murder. We have been following the trial of Oscar Selgado for the past three months. Following the end of the "trial within a trial," it was determined that Giovanni Ramirez's statement would be allowed to be used in place of his testimony, since he fears for his life. It was also agreed that the evidence obtained during the trial within a trial would be entered.
And as the trial proceeded, three witnesses were called to the stand. The first was the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams. In his testimony, he said that he received about 8 audio recordings from Ramirez via WhatsApp. In one of the recordings, we heard a voice that he recognized as Selgado's saying that he has done a lot of good for people in society but that someone, whom he referred to with an obscenity, wants to have him disbarred. Then in another recording, the ComPol said the same voice pointed out a house where Marilyn Barnes lives.
The ComPol added that Ramirez confirmed his voice to be the second one on the recording.
And the court will have to take the commissioner's word for it, because the recordings are….in the wind, LOST.
When the media asked him about the disappearance of those recordings, he said that it wasn't the police's fault.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I don't want to go into much details where this current matter with Mr. Selgado is concerned. As you know, the matter is still live before the courts and I don't want to say things that may jeopardize the outcome or to preempt whatever so I rather reserve the comments on when the case is over."
Reporter
"In terms of police securing evidence though, the tape recording or the clips DVD/CD recordings, in terms of police securing evidence like that, can you speak to what the procedure is and how this might have gotten lost?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The police did follow the proper process, I must say. The recording did not go missing from the police and I leave it at that."
Reporter
"Did you say that you only shared what you recalled from the recording because you can't recall everything?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yes, I did say that."
Reporter
"Should there have been a transcript?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I would not be the one to do the transcript. The transcript would have been done by the investigator. The statement that the investigator recorded from the witness would contain the transcript."
Following his testimony, former police officer Wilfred Ferrufino took the stand. He stated that on March 17th, 2019 he was handed a white Samsung cellphone by Ramirez. The next morning, he handed it over to a corporal in the IT department to extract the recordings. On the 19th of March 2019, he received the cell phone along with 4 CDs and a memory card. The day after, he recorded Barnes' statement.
Ferrufino said that in the audio recordings he listened to, he also recognized one of the voices to be Selgado, and corroborated the ComPol's testimony that the voice stated he wanted someone dead. He added that the same person said it had to be before the next General Legal Council meeting, which was scheduled for the following month. Then, on July 4th, Ferrufino arrested Selgado for abetment to murder.
During the cross examination, though, Selgado's attorney stood up to ask about a third statement that Ferrufino submitted. He asked him if it was a request from the DPP to revise the statement, and why.
After the proceedings, we asked the DPP the purpose for the third statement.
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecution
"The recording was in our possession. The third statement was given after the recording went missing from the file and it was necessary for us to give an account of having received that recording and what happened with the recording when it was still in our possession."
"Just to lay the foundation. It was being suggested that the witness had been prompted to say certain things in his statement and so that was just clarified in re-examination."
Reporter
"A decision to bring as a crown witness, the senior magistrate who heard or conducted the preliminary inquiry, you believe that this strengthens your case and this you would call her a last minute witness?"
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecution
"It was certainly not anticipated that we would have had to call her but because of the way that the evidence went, it became necessary for us to just tighten the evidence by calling that witness in relation to the fact that all of the exhibits in the matter had been tendered at the preliminary inquiry."
The third witness was Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts Anderson, who spoke about the handling of the exhibits.
The matter was adjourned to Thursday morning where the defense will present their submission.
