Attorney accuses cops of using sex offence charge to coerce statement from murder suspect

Defence lawyer Leroy Equiano has accused the investigating officer in the 2016 murder of two United States missionaries in St Mary of using a sexual offence charge to bribe his client, accused killer Andre Thomas, for information about the murder.

Thomas, a 22-year-old labourer, is currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court for the murders of Randy Hentzel, 48, and Harold Nichols, 53, who were found dead in Wentworth district in St Mary between April 30 and May 1, 2016.

He was charged with two counts of murder in June 2016 while he was in custody for having sex with a person under 16, to which he later pleaded guilty.

Yesterday, during the trial, Equiano suggested that the police used the sex charge to force his client into giving the police a statement in the murder but this was strongly denied by the investigation officer, a deputy superintendent of police.

“The CISOCA [Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse] thing, a that unuh start use on him, you in particular.

“When you saw him on the fifth [of June] this is what you told him: ‘If you tell me all of wat you know we won’t proceed with the charge against you for having sex with a person under 16’. That is what you use to bribe him,” Equiano said.

“No sir, there was no such conversation,” the officer replied.

Equiano then questioned whether the information that his client shared about the relationship that he had with the teen for over a year had grounded the sex charge.

But the officer dismissed the suggestion while explaining that Thomas was charged before he met with him and that what he was told about the sex matter was never used as a part of the murder case.

The officer maintained that Thomas had volunteered the information and that he had not made him any promises or offers.

Highlighting that his client requested to speak with the investigating officer a day after he detailed his relationship with the minor, Equiano suggested that the police promised the defendant that if he cooperated with the police the “little sexual business can go away”.

Responding to Equiano, the witness made it clear that having sexual intercourse with a minor is not a little thing, while insisting that he made no such promise.

He also told the court that Thomas was just being a “good citizen” when he requested to speak with him.

Equiano, further in the cross-examination, suggested that his client was coerced into showing the police the murder scene and where he claimed he had met Dwight Henry, on the morning of the incident.

The investigating officer, in denying the suggestion, said the police requested that he show them certain locations to validate the information that he gave to them.

Henry, who is Thomas’ cousin, pleaded guilty to the murder in January and was sentenced to 28 years to life.

The investigating officer previously told the court that Thomas, during one of his statements, told the police that on the morning of the murder he met Henry at church in Port Maria in St Mary and that they went to Wentworth where they stopped at Henry’s father’s house and drank porridge before the murder.

The investigating officer, further in the cross-examination, came under fire from the attorney for using a justice of the peace to witness his client’s statements instead of an attorney.

Equiano questioned why the officer had not sought a lawyer for Thomas.

In responding, the officer insisted that Thomas had approved the police’s use of a justice of the peace after saying that he did not want a lawyer, as he and the investigating officer had a good relationship.

But Equiano asked him if it was fair to have told his client that it is sometimes hard to get lawyers and that justices of the peace are always available.

The officer maintained that Thomas was offered a lawyer but asked for a justice of the peace.

Meanwhile, the court heard that Thomas, in his first statement to the police, told them that he did not know anything about the murder and was at his home.

However, in another statement, he told them that Henry told him that he and another guy killed the missionaries but in yet another statement said he witnessed Henry shooting one of the men in the head.

He also said in that statement that Henry threatened to kill him if he did not help to tie up one of the missionaries.

Thomas also claimed he begged Henry repeatedly to leave the men alone but he called him a coward and accused him of being a “chicken”. According to Thomas, he only knew about how one of the men died as the other had run off with Henry chasing him.

The trial will continue today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com