The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net A THIRD witness to the February 2006 murder of businessman Keith Carey took the stand yesterday as the retrial of the case continued. The witness, who was outside the Bank of the Bahamas on Tonique Williams Darling Highway on February 27, 2006, testified that she saw a masked gunman hold up and shoot Carey on the steps of the bank's entrance before fleeing in a white Maxima. Prosecutors claim Jamal Glinton shot Carey, who was attempting to deposit $40,000 from the Esso Service Station which he operated. Glinton, alias "Bumper", was unanimously found guilty of the murder and armed robbery of Carey on April 9, 2009. He had been charged along with Dwight Knowles and Sean Brown, who were unanimously convicted of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. However, Glinton's conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal, which ruled that Senior Justice Jon Isaacs was wrong to remove the charges of murder and armed robbery against the two co-accused. Senior Justice Isaacs had directed the jury not to consider the charge of murder in the cases of Knowles and Brown. That direction was one of 17 grounds of appeal filed by Glinton's attorney Craig Butler. The appellate court ruled in Glinton's favour, though they ordered a retrial and remanded him to Her Majesty's Prison. However, he was granted bail in the Supreme Court. During yesterday's proceedings, the witness, a teacher, said she went to the bank around 10.30am to use the ATM machine. When she realised the machine was not working, she went inside to speak with a customer service employee. Exiting the bank with her son, she went to her four-door truck with the intention of leaving. After strapping her son in, the witness said she was about to buckle her own seat-belt when she heard shots go off. "I looked up because it sounded like tyres had just burst but I looked over my shoulder and saw a robbery taking place." She saw a man "holding a gun, taking up a bag", and then saw the man shoot Carey again. She said the gunman, who was "of dark complexion, slim build, and had a visible scar on his right elbow", got into a white Maxima parked near the bank's entrance. The car windows were tinted but she was able to remember the licence plate number, 80654. She gave this information and a statement to police after they secured the scene of the robbery. During cross-examination, Mr Butler suggested the witness never saw a scar on the gunman according to her initial description. The witness disagreed. "In your statement you never mentioned scars," he retorted. "You were traumatised but you remembered the licence plate. No memory of scars though." She replied that the scars were the only thing she forgot to mention, because of her shock and fear over what she witnessed that day. The trial resumes today at 10am.