A prosecution witness admitted yesterday under cross-examination at the trial of the four policemen charged with the murder of 18-year-old Andre "Kunte" Thomas of Grants Pen Road, St Andrew, that he told lies in his testimony on Wednesday.

Solomon Francis, a 36-year-old tiler, had testified that he was in a shop on the gully bank when he saw a policeman pointed a gun and then observed that Thomas was shot. He also identified the policemen in court as the ones who were on the gully bank at about 2 p.m. on September 28, 2007 when the incident took place.

what he heard

During cross-examination yesterday, Francis said he could not identify the policemen who were on the gully bank because he ran to his house when he saw the policemen coming down the gully bank. He said he gave his statement to the police based on what he had heard from people in the community.

He said yesterday someone told him to stick to his statement. He had testified that he saw a policeman take a piece of board from a shop and began beating "Kunte." Under cross-examination he said he did not witness any beating.

Francis was the second crown witness to change his statement during the trial. Last week, Jermaine Edie testified before the 12-member jury that four policemen came to the community the day when Thomas was fatally shot. He said one of the policemen named Bryan, who was also called "Matterhorn", drove the police jeep but Bryan did not go down to the gully bank. He said three of the policemen went down to the gully bank but he could not identify them because the incident happened so long ago.

Edie's statement, which he gave at the Bureau of Special Investigation, was shown to him in which he had said he had seen the policemen several times in the community but he said he did not tell the police some of the things that were written in the statement. He said the statement was not read over to him and he was not given the statement to read before he signed it.

Corporals Noel Bryan and Philip Dunstan and constables Clayton Fearon and Omar Miller are on trial for the murder.

Justice Donald McIntosh is presiding at the trial.

The crown represented by attorney-at-law Kathy Pyke and crown counsel Sasha Marie Smith, is alleging that Thomas was shot in cold blood.

The police had reported that Thomas pointed a gun at them and they fired in self defence. Defence lawyers Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, QC, Valerie Neita Robertson, Linton Walters, Peter Champagnie and Tamika Harris are representing the policemen.