DETECTIVE Corporal Floyd Ozama yesterday told the judge and jury in the Ralph Turpin murder trial about spent shells and what appeared to be blood stains that he found at the crime scene.

He found two spent shells at different places and he also observed red substances which appeared to him to be blood stains.
And in answer to defence counsel, Mr. Glenn Hanoman, he said that by the scent of the substance, he was sure that it was blood. He however admitted that he did not analyse the substance.
Ozama was testifying before Justice Brassington Reynolds and the jury at the Demerara Assizes at the trial of Sherwyn Smith who is accused of shooting Turpin following a heated argument at Stabroek Market area between the 14th and 15th September, 2011. The police detective also said that he caused photographs to be taken of the blood stains and the spent shells.
At the time Turpin was a drugs counsellor attached to the Infinity Transition House, which is an institution dedicated to the rehabilitation of alcoholics and drug addicts.
Ozama went on to say that the two shells he collected were sent to the Firearms and Ammunition Department at Eve Leary for examination by Sergeant Jackson.
The witness Ozama was about to open the white pill box that contained the spent shells, but the exercise was put off until later after defence counsel Hanoman informed the prosecutrix, Mrs. Tashana Lake, that he would first wish to ask the analyst certain questions. The application was granted.
The trial is continuing
(By George Barclay)