Accused gangsters had cellphone numbers in other people’s names, expert testifies
NINE women and two men who had given addresses in the same communities as alleged members of the Klansman Gang — 33 of whom are now on trial in the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston — were the subscribers for the cellphone contact numbers attributed to several of the accused, including alleged leader Andre “Blackman” Bryan.
The information came to light on Thursday afternoon during the continuing testimony of a communications analyst from the Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Division of the constabulary.
The evidence included a power point presentation comprising the call data records and subscriber information received from telecommunications firm Flow along with the numbers and attributions (aliases and names of alleged gangsters) taken from the three cellphones turned over to the police by Witness Number One.
The recordings of ostensibly incriminating conversations between the gangsters were secretly made by the main witness, an ex-gang member, using the phones two of which were given to him by the cops to record conversations between himself and his former allies when he started working with the police undercover in 2018.
Those conversations were played into the records of the court over several days in February this year after the phones, the compact discs with the recordings, and the transcripts of those recordings were entered into evidence.
On Thursday the analyst, a police sergeant, retook the stand saying the details contained in the presentation supported the information relating to the call data records received from Flow.
He then unveiled for the court a graphical representation showing the names and addresses for the subscribers for the numbers used by the defendants, Bryan; Stephanie Christie, also called Mumma; Jason Brown, alias City Puss; Roel Taylor; Fabian Johnson, alias Crocs; Marco Miller, also called Hezzie; Jahzeel Blake, alias Squeeze Eye; and Joseph Mcdermott, also known as Pappa.
Bryan had four phone numbers attributed to him. One of the nine females was listed as the subscriber for at least one of those numbers. She was also the subscriber for at least one of the numbers used by City Puss, a supposed high-ranking lieutenant in the gang who has been behind bars since 2012 on other charges.
Brown, according to the analyst, had all five phone numbers attributed to him.
The same female was also the subscriber for one of the cell numbers attributed to Christie, who had two numbers attributed to her.
Other gang members had between one and two numbers linked to their names purchased by the individuals who were referred to by the analyst on Thursday.
These individuals are not before the courts.
In the meantime, a link chart presented by the cop showed the hundreds of calls that were made from the numbers attributed to Witness Number One to the various numbers of the alleged gang members, the lead investigator in the case, and the offices of the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Unit of the constabulary.
That chart showed that Witness Number One, over one particular period, supposedly called Bryan on one of the numbers listed for him a total 182 times, Crocs 134 times, an individual listed only as Shrek (not on trial) 188 times, City Puss 336 times, and Christie 422 times on one of the numbers ascribed to her and 290 times on another of her numbers. He also called other alleged members of the gang numerous times.
As it relates to calls purportedly made by the alleged gangsters to Witness Number One, Christie is on record as calling him 514 times from one of her numbers. The lead investigator called the witness 131 times, Bryan from a third number attributed to his name called the witness 250 times and 110 times from another number attributed to him and 384 times from another.
The cop, who will resume his testimony today at 10:00 am before trial judge Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, noted that he was also familiar with the numbers attributed to the lead investigator in the case by virtue of the fact that he was his colleague and had called him on several occasions using those same numbers.