BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A handwriting expert maintained under cross-examination last Friday (Feb. 14), that the key prosecution witness was the one who wrote a letter to the public defender which brings into question his own statements to the police in the Vybz Kartel murder trial.
According to the Jamaican Observer, Karl Major, a retired senior superintendent of police, who was in charge of the Questioned Document section of the Government Forensic Laboratory, said that all handwriting exhibit natural variation.
"If you sign your signature twice it will not be the same”, Major said in response to a question from senior prosecutor Jeremy Taylor about variation in certain letters in the main witness' signature.” The entity reported.
The media house also stated that Major had been asked by defence attorney Tom Tavares-Finson to examine a photocopy of statements given to the police by the prosecution's star witness and compare the handwriting to a letter the defence claims was written by the witness and sent to the Office of the Public Defender.
“Earlier in the trial in the Home Circuit Court, Tavares-Finson had suggested to the witness that he had written the letter in which he said he was forced by the police to give evidence and that he had, in fact, seen Clive 'Lizard' Williams after the night of August 16, 2011 — the day the police alleged the five men beat him to death.” The Observer stated.
The witness has denied writing the letter.
The Dancehall superstar is jointly charged with fellow entertainer Shawn Campbell - also known as Shawn Storm - Kahira Jones, Shane Williams and Andre St. John for the August 16, 2011 murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.
