MINI-bus driver Mohan Singh, called ‘Jug Head’ was deemed a hostile witness by Justice Navindra Singh based on an application made by the State after it was disclosed that he was giving testimony adverse to his police statement.

Singh was called to testify when the double murder trial of accused Cyon Collie, called ‘Picture Boy’, resumed before a mixed Demerara Assizes jury .
Collier is charged with the murder of brothers, Ray Walcott and Carl Andrews on September 23, 2006, at the Victoria Four Corner, East Coast of Demerara.
Singh testified that he had known Collier and the deceased brothers for about six years prior to 2006 and that he used to lime with them at the corner. They were friends.
He said that on September 23, 2006, between 2:00 am to 3:00am, he was transporting some 15 passengers from Ann’s Grove to Georgetown when the sliding door of the bus began giving trouble. He pulled in at the Victoria Gas Station where he was fixing the door when a voice said from behind him “ah gat to move now. A just kill three body”
The witness claimed he did not see the person but recognized Collier’s voice because he spoke to Collier about four times a week and knew “how he does talk.” Asked about the lighting conditions, the witness said it was “dim.” He also said that the two passengers exited the front seat and the “person” went in the front, but had the lower part of his body in the bus while the upper part was outside.
Singh claimed that even though he had walked in front of the bus to go to the driver’s side, he did not see the person.
Senior State Counsel Judith Gildharie-Mursalin then asked the witness whether he had given a statement to the police, followed by a further statement. He acknowledged his signatures on same and admitted that these statements were read to him. He however denied telling the police the contents.
Based upon an application by the State, the trial Judge deemed Singh hostile and allowed the State Counsel to cross-examine him on his evidence and the inconsistencies in his statements.
The Prosecutrix put to the witness that on the same September 23, 2006, he had told the police that he recognized Collier because the area was brightly lit with street lights and that when Collier came up to him, he said “Jug Head, a got to move now . A just kill three body. Feel how the magazine hot.” He also denied telling the police in that statement that when Collier touched him with the magazine, it was hot.
Further, he denied telling the police that Collier was armed with an AK 47 rifle and he knew it was such type of weapon because he had seen them in the newspaper and on the television. The witness was also confronted with his statement in which he told the police that Collier seemed to be wearing a bullet- proof vest and had what appeared to be two hand-guns stuck in the front of his pants waist. He further denied telling the police that Collier had pointed the weapon at two passengers in the front seat and had told them to go to the back of the bus. He, however accepted that he did not tell the police, as reflected in that statement, that the back was filled, so the two headed south in the village.
He was also confronted with the fact that he had told the police in the same statement that Collier, whom he referred to as “Seon”, was in the front seat of the bus as he drove to Georgetown, and while at Factory Road, Paradise, the accused told him to stop since the police had a road block up ahead.
Singh was also cross-examined by defence counsel, Lyndon Amsterdam, and maintained that he did not know what he was signing to since he can “only read script, not join up writing” and the statement was in the latter.
He said he dropped off his passengers in Georgetown, and on his return to the East Coast, he was stopped by the police at Victoria Gas Station where an officer asked him why he passed all those police stations on the way and did not stop to make a report.
It was there he learnt from the people who had gathered that two persons were dead. The same officer told him that he had to go to the station and give a statement.
The trial is continuing.

(By George Barclay)