Murder Trial: Defendant’s Mother Testifies
The mother of a man accused of murder took the stand today [Mar.23] in the Supreme Court murder trial of 25-year-old Antonio Myers, who is accused of murdering a rival gang member – charges which he denies.
Having heard evidence that one particular 40 calibre pistol and one particular 9mm pistol had been used in a series of shootings, the Crown called one more police witness, DC Beech. This last police witness testified to losing the results of a long police interview with Andrew Lawes.
DC Beech explained that two police interviewers, herself and another police person, had been taking a statement from Mr Lawes. They believed that this statement-taking process was being recorded electronically.
DC Beech said that a malfunction had resulted in the statement not being recorded electronically. The two police persons then immediately recorded the statement from memory and it was these ‘police notes made from memory’ that were being provided as the evidence that resulted from the lengthy interview with Mr Lawes.
On cross examination by defence lawyer Jerome Lynch,QC, DC Beech agreed that this evidence contained an assertion by Mr Lawes that he “…was tired of living in the trees and money talks. If my son knew what I am doing he would kill me.”
QC Lynch continued his cross examination and elicited the facts that around 3:30am Saturday 5th December 2009, at the Devonshire Recreation Club, there had been an incident wherein David Cox, said to be a shot-caller in the 42nd gang, had thrown a drink in the face of a woman known as ‘Niko’.
Following this last police witness, the Crown, at 3:08pm, closed its case.
The defendant was then required to stand. The Court Clerk then told the defendant, Antonio Myers, that the Crown had offered its evidence. The Clerk asked if he, Antonio Myers, was going to take to the witness stand and offer his defence. Mr Myers replied: “No.”
Lawyer Elizabeth Christopher, acting as the junior to QC Lynch called a witness to the stand to give evidence on behalf of the defence.
This witness was Deborah Maynard, 55 years old, and, in December 2009, was living at #17 Rambling Lane, Curving Avenue, Pembroke. Asked twice who lived in her residence, Ms Maynard twice replied: “ My daughter, my son-in-law, and my grandson.” After prompting by Ms Christopher, she added that her son, Antonio Myers, also lived there.
Describing living conditions, she said that the house was a three bedroom house. She occupied one bedroom, her daughter and son-in-law occupied a second bedroom, and her grandson occupied the third. She said that as far as she knew, her son spent his time living between his two girlfriend’s places and that when he stayed at her house, he slept on the couch in the living room. She later described this as a now and again occurrence.
There was a short break with the Crown objecting to the manner of the introduction of Mr Myer’s mother as an alibi witness. After legal arguments in the absence of the jury, Justice Greaves ruled that the matter should proceed.
With the jury recalled, Ms Christopher completed introducing defence evidence. Recalling events of the 4th and 5th December 2009, Ms Maynard said that she was at home babysitting her grandson. After going to bed on Friday night, she said that she got up at 1:30am on Saturday and again at 4:30am; each time she went to the bathroom.
Asked how she was so sure of the time, she said that a prominently displayed Cablevision clock was always the first thing she saw when she woke up. At 4:30am on Saturday morning, she got up, noticed that the living room TV was on, went into the living room to see why, and saw that her son was asleep on the couch. She used the bathroom and returned to bed, not rising again until 9:00am that morning.
On waking and after outside and going about her business outside, she said that she noticed that the people in the complex were calling around and talking about a shooting. Ms Christopher ended her questioning of Ms Maynard.
Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney then began a vigorous cross-examination. He asked the victim’s mother if she knew that her son was a member of Parkside gang. She replied that she did not know. Asked if he hung in Middletown, she answered: “Yes.”
The Crown Counsel pressed hard on the issue of whether or not the victim’s mother knew if he was a member of Parkside gang. Crown Counsel gave the witness a police statement dated 23rd December 2009 which recorded the results of an interview between Ms Maynard and DC Beech. Crown Counsel, after asking her to re-read a copy of that statement, asked again if she had said that “Now we all need to get him out.”
Pressing harder, the Crown Counsel asked if she had said, as the written statement had recorded, that Mr Meyer had hung with Parkside? Three times she answered that: “I didn’t say Parkside.”
Mr Mahoney questioned Ms Maynard about her son’s sleeping habits. He drew out, from Ms Maynard, that her son, was not a regular sleepover person at her residence. Under continued cross-examination, she admitted that she was not always aware of where her son was or what he was doing. She offered that ‘parents don’t always know what heir children get up to’, and that Mr Myers could come and go without her knowing.
She confirmed to Crown Counsel that she probably spent no more than five minutes in the bathroom at 4:30am on Saturday 5th December 2009 and had then returned to bed and gone back to sleep. Crown Counsel asked for reassurance that she was not one of those “spirit persons” who walk about at night and see all that is going on. He went on to say to her: “So you don’t know what was going on at 5:00am?” Ms Maynard, replied: “Yes.”
Asked if Mr Meyer had a job, she said that she knew that he had worked for J&M Construction, had worked on the Perimeter Lane apartments project, and on the Hustle Truck. Crown Counsel asked if she knew that he had a nickname “Stone”. Ms Maynard replied: “No.”
Shortly after, the case was adjourned. It resumes tomorrow.
(File photo of Mr Myers)
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