Phone evidence allowed in ‘Blackman’ case - Court also hears gang tricked into ‘loaning’ rifle to police

A cellular phone that was used to secretly record the conversations of alleged members of the Clansman - One Don Gang, including its reputed leader Andre 'Blackman' Bryan, has been admitted into evidence. The phone was one of three that the prosecution sought to put before the court in the trial in the Supreme Court.

The prosecution's second witness, who is a former top-tier member of the gang, had testified that he had secretly recorded phone conversations that he had with key alleged members of the gang and had handed them over to the police. He told the court that two of the phones were provided by the police while Bryan had sponsored the third after he told him that his phone was not working properly.

The prosecution, on Tuesday, had attempted to have the recordings and transcripts admitted into evidence but its effort was blocked.

Defence lawyers had raised concerns that no evidence was presented to establish the chain of custody, safekeeping, and integrity for the compact disc on which the recordings were saved.

The prosecution, on Wednesday, returned with a new strategy, which involved calling four police witnesses to the stand. These cops were involved in the handling of the phones and recordings. The lead investigating officer -- a detective sergeant who is one of the four officers -- has so far testified that he gave the former gangster two cellular phones to record the conversations. He said that he later collected the phones and submitted them to the Communication Forensic and Cybercrime Division at the Cyber Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch.

Yesterday, however, only one of the two phones was tendered into evidence. The other was marked for identity after the police sergeant was unable to open it to retrieve the phone's unique identification number.

Meanwhile, the chief investigator yesterday corroborated the testimony of the prosecution's second witness that he had handed over two of the gang's guns to the police. The police witness told the court that he received a Ruger 99 and a rifle. He told the court that he had accompanied the ex-gangster to Jones Avenue in Spanish Town, St Catherine, to collect the rifle under the guise that he was the ex-gangster's uncle. According to the police witness, two other policemen travelled behind them in another car.

The police witness said he had driven the ex-gangster's car and, when they arrived, one man brought the 9mm gun in a scandal bag and gave it to the witness while another brought the ammunition in a bottle, after the witness had asked about the "teeth".

The witness had previously told the court that he had handed over the 9mm to the police after he had lied to Bryan about borrowing the gun to kill someone.

The court had also heard that the witness had gone to Jones Avenue that day to drop off the payment for the gun, which the gang was buying, and to collect the weapon.

With respect to the rifle, the police witness recalled meeting the witness at a gas station in St Catherine and collecting the rifle, which was wrapped in a sheet.

The witness had testified that he used a ruse that he was taking the gun to the gang's gun repairs man to have it fixed. He turned it over to the police instead.