Knocking sharply on a wooden podium set up in the courtroom, Assistant Attorney General Courtney Reese tried to demonstrate the urgency with which Jahlil Ward allegedly rapped upon the door of St. John resident Glanville Frazer during the early morning hours of June 19, 2007, and demanded a ride, saying that he had "just fought with a white guy" and needed to get out of the area.
A few seconds later, Reese slid to the other side of the prosecution’s table, and put his fingers to his ear, trying to imitate another alleged conversation Ward had with a 17-year old witness, to whom Ward allegedly confessed that he had "killed a white boy," after trying to take his money.
The dramatizations marked the opening day of the second trial for Ward, who was convicted last October of stabbing to death James "Jamie" Cockayne two years ago on St. John. Ward was granted a new trial a few months ago, after it was revealed that the government had not turned over evidence that Ward’s lawyer, Michael Quinn, successfully argued on appeal was "material" to the case.
That material evidence is a statement made by Kamal Thomas, Ward’s former co-defendant, who had been sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison for assaulting Cockayne before he was murdered but was also recently granted another trial after questions were raised over whether the Cockayne family paid off witnesses.
Thomas allegedly admitted to another individual that he killed Cockayne — evidence which Quinn has said could have exonerated his client. Thomas’ statement was not mentioned Monday, with Quinn instead focusing on the alleged confession to the 17-year-old and the exchange with Frazer.
He urged jurors during his opening argument to pay close attention to what the government’s key witnesses had to say and how they said it.
"Ask yourselves, is what they’re saying fact, or are they making it up," Quinn said to the panel of 12 women and three men. "I don’t mean to sound too heavy on you, but it’s a heavy responsibility you have."
Quinn did his part Monday by attempting to poke holes in much of the witness testimony, referencing statements made during the first trial. Otherwise, his strategy included pointing out what officers responding to the crime scene did or did not do and frequently emphasizing that the area was hosed down by firemen before officers from the Major Crimes or Forensics units — who traveled over from St. Thomas by boat hours after the murder occurred — showed up.
One officer, Sgt. Kimberly Steele, testified Monday that she went to the crime scene about 20 minutes after a call about a possible assault came into St. John’s Leander Jurgen Command around 12:28 a.m. on June 19, 2007.
Another officer, Earle Mills, responded immediately after the call came in, and spent most of his time at the crime scene — the road in front of Fashion Palace — with Cockayne, who was bleeding and lying in the street. Cockayne had a weak pulse and had attempted to speak, but nothing came out clearly, Mills said on the stand. When Cockayne tried to get up, Mills said he tried to get him to calm down, relax and wait for the ambulance.
Under questioning from Quinn, Mills said he usually takes a note pad along with him to document what he sees, but did not write anything down that morning because his primary task was making sure Cockayne was stabilized. Mills, a 15-year VIPD veteran, said when he is sent out to a crime scene, generally his task is to write down what he sees, along with eyewitness statements.
When asked what he did to make sure the scene was secure, Mills said he put his police car in the roadway, blocking anyone nearby from coming close or stepping in the trail of blood that led from behind a wooden partition attached to the front of the Fashion Palace, into the street and down the road. During his testimony Monday, Mills acknowledged that when asked by a witness at the scene about cordoning off the area with tape, Mills said there was no tape available.
That witness, Abigail Schnell O’Connell, also testified Monday. On the morning of the murder, she said she and her boyfriend were then living above the Fashion Palace, and had been roused by a scuffle in the street. Looking out her bedroom window, O’Connell said she saw a man dressed in dark clothing run at an angle across the street, get into an orange car, and flee the scene.
O’Connell said Monday that when Mills showed up, she told him about the car and suggested that he follow. "He told me that he needed to be at the crime scene and that there was no one else available," O’Connell testified.
While on the stand later, Mills confirmed the statement, saying that he was trying to do "two or three jobs" at the same time. He also explained that when a witness gives police a description of a suspect or vehicle, the general procedure is to put out an all-points bulletin.
"Did that happen in this case?" Quinn asked.
"No, that didn’t happen," Mills responded.
Mills even drove the ambulance to the Myrah Keating Smith Community Clinic while two emergency medical technicians tried to work on Cockayne.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Steele testified that along with taking pictures of the crime scene, her primary responsibility in coming out was to supervise Mills and to make sure he "did what he had to do and follow procedure."
No fingerprint or DNA evidence was collected , and Steele said later those areas are generally taken care of by Forensics or, in the case of getting fingerprints, someone in the identification department certified to do so.
A key witness for the government, Frazer testified Monday that when Ward came to his door that morning and asked for a ride, he immediately put on a shirt and shoes and took him where he wanted to go. Frazer said Ward was "sweaty, like he was running," carried his shirt in his hand and was wearing white sneakers with spots of blood on them.
When asked later whether he told Mills — who he encountered on the way home — or any other officers about Ward’s statement, Frazer said, "What was I going to report? I didn’t see anything — I just gave him a ride."
Frazer’s girlfriend, Jo’Nique Clendinen, who was also at the house when Ward allegedly appeared, also took the stand Monday, saying that Ward did talk about being involved in a fight, but did not say with whom.
The government’s other key witness, a 17-year-old minor whose name the Justice Department has asked not be released for her own protection, also testified that, during a phone conversation, Ward confessed to killing Cockayne and the next day showed her the knife he allegedly used to do it, along with a pair of "white Nike low-tops" with blood on the soles and lining of the laces.
"He said the guy had money, and that he was buff, like a football player," the witness said about the conversation with Ward.
Quinn was quick to point out that Ward and the witness had an intimate relationship, but questioned whether Ward would volunteer a confession to someone he had known, or been dating, for less than a month. He instead painted a picture of an obsessed girl, who kept calling Ward even after they broke up, and mentioned there were several details included in her testimony that she "couldn’t recall" during the first trial.
The witness maintained, as she did when Ward was being tried in 2008, that she was pregnant the first time she testified, and that her recollection was affected by the stress of the pregnancy. Calling Ward after he moved to the states was only an attempt to get the two to be friends and put aside their grudge, she added.
Quinn then pressed the witness — under a barrage of objections by opposing counsel — whether her testimony was an attempt at revenge, or a way to win over the affection of Thomas, who she had begun hanging out with at the time.
The witness broke down on the stand, frustrated by her inability to fully explain the circumstances, since most of the questions only allowed for "yes" or "no" answers.
The witness said she had spent time at Thomas’ house, and told one of the investigators about Ward’s confession, but was firm in her assertion that she had not been romantically interested in Thomas.
Throughout the day’s testimony, Ward’s camp looked confident on their side of the courtroom, with Ward — unlike the first time he stood trial — smiling and helping his attorneys with paperwork at the table.
The government, headed by Reese and Assistant Attorney General Claude Walker, got through most of their witness list Monday, calling 10 individuals to the stand, and saying by the time the day wrapped around 7:10 p.m. that only two more were left on the list.
The trial is set to continue at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
