Unknown Male DNA Raised In 2013 St Andrew Police Killing Trial

A Government Forensic Laboratory analyst told the Home Circuit Court on Tuesday that DNA from a man who has not been identified was detected in the vehicle occupied by Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer and Mark Allen before they were shot dead on January 12, 2013.

The three men were killed during what police described as an armed encounter with a team carrying out an operation on Acadia Drive in Barbican, St Andrew. Police had said a fourth occupant of the blue Mitsubishi Outlander got away during the incident.

According to the police account, officers signalled the driver of the Mitsubishi Outlander to pull over. The driver was said to have delayed before stopping. Police alleged that, after the vehicle stopped, men came out and engaged the team in a gunfight, during which Lee, Dyer and Allen were fatally shot.

The analyst, the latest witness called in the murder trial, gave evidence before a seven-member jury in Kingston. She said a tested sample identified as exhibit J did not return a match.

“Exhibit J, which is a swab allegedly taken from Blue Mitsubishi Outlander had insufficient DNA, therefore failed to produce results for 13 [DNA related] areas tested,” the witness said. She also confirmed that DNA from the three deceased men was found inside the vehicle.

The analyst said the sample was checked against a DNA database, but no match was generated. However, she told the court, “We were able however to determine that the limited DNA present was from a male.”

During examination-in-chief, prosecutor Cygale Pennant asked the witness about conditions that may affect DNA markers. The analyst said swabbing an object does not automatically mean DNA will be recovered, except where biological material such as blood, semen or dried saliva is present.

“The result obtained from exhibit J indicates there is either insufficient DNA present to produce a DNA profile or the DNA present is so degraded that a DNA profile could not be obtained,” the witness said.

She further explained that analysts use a specific calculation to determine how often DNA components appear in the population when assessing whether a profile is a match.

“This frequency is obtained from a random database of random samples from the Jamaican population. These random samples were analysed and the frequency of the DNA components obtained were calculated and used as the Jamaican population database from which the random match probability of a profile obtained can be calculated,” she said.

After completing her questions, Pennant told trial judge Sonia Bertram-Linton that she had no more questions for the witness. Kathy Ann-Pyke is the lead prosecutor, but Pennant handled this witness’s evidence for the Crown.

Defence attorneys Hugh Wildman, Althea Grant-Coppin and John Jacobs were expected to start cross-examining the analyst, but the hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.

Sergeant Simroy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton, and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose and Richard Lynch are before the court on murder charges. Fullerton also faces a charge of making a false statement to the Independent Commission of Investigations.