Brooks says there was enough evidence to prosecute
Last Week the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that four men accused of murdering fifteen year old Samantha Gordon and another man accused of the murder of ten year old Jackie Fern Malic be released and the charges against them dropped. Adolph Lucas said there simply was not enough evidence in either case, in effect that the police had not prepared the cases sufficiently. This is not the first time the police have been dealt such a stunning blow, nor is it the first time the D.P.P. has indicated that police need to investigate and gather evidence before they make an arrest instead of the other way around. Today it was the Police Department’s turn to give their side of the story. The Commissioner of Police, as expected took issue with the D.P.P.’s right to decide how much evidence is enough. News Five was at the news conference in Belmopan this morning.
Ornel Brooks, Commissioner of Police says they had enough evidence for both murder cases to proceed to court. Brooks claims it was not up to Adolph Lucas, the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether there was evidence but that decision should have been made by a jury of twelve people.
Ornel Brooks, Commissioner of Police
“Sufficient evidence to proceed to the Supreme Court. The D.P.P. tells you about what he considers arguable in a Supreme Court, but then by law and the judicial process and the justice process of this country, it is for such argument to be done before the jury not by me, not by the magistrate or the Director of Public Prosecutions. This is the system under which the Constitution works, the laws of the country works.”
In respect to the murder of Samantha Gordon, Brooks says their investigation reveal that the act was premeditated. Brooks claims that one of their witnesses, whose statement was in the file, claims he was approached by Melvin Young and asked to kill the fifteen year old Gordon. But in the D.P.P.’s memo to the police, Lucas says there was no evidence that showed Young committed the act. Brooks says this is not necessary.
Ornel Brooks
“The slightest evidence which connects one of the accused, Melvin Young is provided by the witness who stated that Melvin Young had told me that he wanted Samantha dead. So I asked him why. He told me that Samantha get him sick. This piece of evidence provides the guilty intent to commit an act of crime but there is no evidence of Melvin’s act.”
However Brooks says the case did not rest on this one witness. He claims police also submitted other evidence which showed Young sponsored a party Gordon was invited to attend and where the plan to carry out her murder was finalized.
Ornel Brooks
“Yes indeed we have evidence that within the file from more than one witnesses who confirmed that the party was held at Warren Cabral’s home at Vista del Mar, Young’s next door neighbor and who at the time was an employee of Melvin Young. There is evidence also in Cabral’s statement that Young sponsored the party. He paid for the drinks; he paid for the food. We have evidence within our file that Samantha made mention to numerous persons, members of her family and others that she was going to a party, but she kept the location of the party from most as a secret.”
Brooks says the evidence, in the form of statements from witnesses he would not name, that on Friday, November sixth, Kelvin Francis and Philip Meighan contacted Gordon at the junction of Tigris and King Streets and invited her to the basketball game at City Center.
Ornel Brooks
“We have evidence from two independent witnesses who do not know each other at all, who spoke to Samantha at the basketball game and Samantha confirmed that she was going to a party. They saw both Philip Meighan and Kelvin Francis, Samantha Gordon and another young lady got into a black car from the City Center, drove over the Belcan Bridge, headed up the Northern Highway.”
Brooks says the evidence from these same witnesses is that Gordon arrived at the party eight thirty that night and stayed for about an hour and a half with Francis and Meighan. He has no statements from anyone saying what happened to her after that. Brooks says the mere fact that she was found near the same house is enough to link the men to the murders. The D.P.P. disagrees and says the police never had anything solid to connect any of the four men charged with the murder. He says police could not even establish the cause of death. As to the bizarre motive for the murder which Inspector Eli Salazar presented at a press conference — that Gordon gave one of the men HIV — Brooks says this information was not present in the file because in his words, that investigation was “still in process.” He insists, however, that one of the men did make this claim. If the evidence police presented, or failed to present, didn’t convince the D.P.P. to proceed in the Samantha Gordon case, police also failed to convince him to go ahead with the prosecution of Michael Williams for the murder of Jackie Fern Malic. Commissioner Brooks again insists there was strong evidence to take to court.
Ornel Brooks
“We have two very pertinent witnesses. One is a young lady of sound mind and sobriety who testified to us and was later interrogated by the D.P.P. and stood up that on the twenty second of March when Jackie Malic disappeared at 11:30 a.m. she saw Jackie Malic in a vehicle driven by Michael Williams on Central American Boulevard traveling in the direction of the Port Authority. That’s the last known sighting of Jackie Malic alive. She went further to say that when she was between the ages of 12-14 she was sexually molested by Michael Williams and was taken to the same general vicinity where the body of Jackie Malic was found. In addition to that we also have a witness who saw Michael Williams in the vicinity on a particular night and identified him on the line as such, identified him on the line.”
D.P.P. Adolph Lucas says in the case of Michael Williams, police never established any similarities between Jackie Malic’s murder and the alleged molestation years before. Despite having these two high profile cases thrown out before they even made it to court, Brooks says he believes the public has not lost confidence in the police. Brooks says they are prepared to go before any tribunal with what evidence they have in the files. Meanwhile the Commissioner says their investigation into both murder cases will continue and they will be requesting help from abroad with the forensic and pathological aspects of the cases. Regarding the suit filed against Commissioner Brooks and Inspector Eli Salazar by attorney Kirk Anderson for defamation of character, Brooks says he is not afraid of any suit and says there is evidence to show that Anderson advised a witness to hide incriminating evidence against Williams. In other police news, there is a new head of the Criminal Investigations Branch at Eastern Division: Inspector Mario Vernon. Inspector Eli Salazar it seems has been replaced.
