Detective with 15 years experience used hearsay evidence to arrest accused
POLICE Detective Constable Rodwell Chapman, with 15 years experience as a policeman, told an assize judge and jury yesterday that he could not recall the name of the person who gave him the information that led to his arresting murder accused, Rayburn Harvey, at the Stabroek Market area.
When asked who had directed him to the Stabroek Market to arrest the accused, witness told defence counsel Mr. Ronald Burch-Smith that on that day he was acting under information received and not under instructions.
At this stage, defence counsel explained to the witness the difference between hearsay evidence which the court could not act upon and the other evidence which the court was entitled to act on.
The Court Prosecutor, Miss Teshana James, had in her opening address to the jury promised to lead evidence to prove that the accused had shot and killed Samantha Belle on the night of March 18, 2006. Evidence, she said, would be led to prove that the accused had intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.
On the resumption yesterday, witness Michael Griffith, of Squatting Area South Ruimveldt, testified that on the 20th March, 2006, he was at the Georgetown Hospital mortuary where he identified his stepdaughter, Samantha Belle during a post mortem.
The other witness to testify was Rodwell Chapman, Detective Constable of East La Penitence Police Station.
Chapman, who was also present at the post mortem, said that, in his presence, the doctor extracted a warhead from the body of the deceased and handed it over to him and told him something. Chapman, who had taken the warhead for analyst examination, testified that it cannot now be located.
Witness said that on April 1, 2006, he was at East La Penitence Police Station when, acting on information received, he, along with a party of policemen, went to the Stabroek Market area. There he contacted Rayburn Harvey, the accused. Witness identified himself and told him that he was a policeman in plain clothes.
Witness added, “I then told him (accused) that he, on 18th March, 2006, at Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, murdered Samantha Belle. I cautioned him, arrested him, and took him to Brickdam Police Station where I placed him in custody. “
The trial is continuing.