BASETTERRE, St. Kitts - A digital forensic analyst was recently called to testify in the ongoing Vybz Kartel murder trial in Jamaica, over alleged killing of Clive 'Lizard' Williams which was allegedly sparked by the disappearance of two illegal guns.
According to the Jamaican Observer, the evidence which was given by Constable Kemar Wilks of the police's Cybercrimes Unit stated that he was unable to vouch for the integrity of information on a disc containing voice notes and videos relating to the alleged killing of Williams.
The media house also said that the Constable was crossed examined by attorney Michael Lorne.
“Wilks also told attorneys Pierre Rogers and Tamika Harris that the information critical voice notes and a video can be manipulated,” the Observer said.
The media house also reported that subsequent to the luncheon adjournment, Wilks testified in his examination-in-chief that he got the disc from Sergeant Patrick Linton, former boss of the Cybercrimes Unit, in November of 2011.
“The disc contains voice notes threatening to kill Williams and others if two 'shoes' were not returned by the evening of August 14, 2011 and videos of men the prosecution believes were involved in the beating of Williams. The video and voice notes were played on previous days for jurors,” the Observer reported.
Wilks said he made transcripts of the video and voice notes. The transcripts were entered into evidence, amid objections from the defence, and the one pertaining to the voice notes was read into evidence.
Rogers was the first of the three lawyers to cross-examine Wilks and he wasted no time getting the Constable to agree that the video could be manipulated; that he saw no faces in the video; and that "voices" on the recordings could be manipulated.
It was also reported that Lorne, who asked Wilks if he could vouch for the integrity of the content of the disc he got from Linton. "No, I cannot," he responded.
“Lorne had started his examination of Wilks by pointing out to the Constable that he noticed that he had difficulty reading his own transcript of the voice notes and that he had problem making out certain words.
"Yes, sir," Wilks said according to the Observer.
“The attorney took issue with the words ‘Yow, mek Need Fi Speed and Shawn Storm cut’, in the transcript of the video that Wilks made. The attorney said he had watched the video and didn't hear those words, but Wilks said he heard them. Lorne then asked Wilks what he interpreted the words to mean, but the Constable said he did no interpretation and that he just wrote what he heard,” the entity reported.
Questioned further, Wilks said he had no training in linguistics or was he trained at university to interpret patois which the men on the video spoke.
Under cross-examination from Harris, Wilks agreed that information from a CD could be copied to the computer and another CD made of the copied information. He also agreed that the information could be changed and altered.
Vybz Kartel, Shaw 'Shawn Storm' Campbell, Shane Williams, Andre St. John, and Kahira Jones have been on trial before Justice Lennox Campbell since last November for Williams' murder on August 16, 2011.
