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Police detective’s murder…No blood was visible on the hammer – Witness
Police Forensic Analyst, Superintendent Steven Greaves told the court yesterday that blood was not detected on the sledgehammer, which was allegedly used in the murder of Police Detective Igris Bobb–Blackman.
Dead: Igris Bobb- Blackman
Greaves was called to the stand by Defence Attorney, Peter Hugh.
Hugh is representing Desiree Jeffers, who is on trial before Justice Dawn Gregory and a mixed twelve-member Jury for the capital offence.
Yesterday Superintendant Greaves told the court that he conducted forensic tests on specific items collected from the scene of the crime.
According to the Analyst, human blood was identified on a number of items. The items which were tested for traces of blood included a carpet, sheet, knife and sledgehammer.
The witness subsequently noted that the sledgehammer, which was allegedly used in the committal of the crime, did not test positive for blood.
Nonetheless, Greaves told State Prosecutor Natasha Backer, while under cross-examination yesterday, that he did not conduct the tests on the entire sledgehammer.
“I applied solution to only spots which I thought was necessary… which was the metal head of the hammer…no blood was visible on the hammer.”
Backer is working on behalf of the State in association with Attorney Mercedes Thompson. She had initially objected to Greaves’ testimony on the grounds that the law as it relates to such offences does not provide for the records of analysts to be tendered as evidence before the court. Justice Gregory overruled the objections and allowed Greaves to give his portion of evidence.
The witness later agreed that it is however possible that blood could have been removed from the sledgehammer using cleaning agents or chemicals.
“I don’t know of any chemicals that can do that… but I guess it’s possible.”
On Wednesday, the accused, Desiree Jeffers recounted her experiences with the former Police Detective Igris Bobb-Blackman, whose body was partially submerged in a septic tank in January, 2011.
Jeffers, 61, of La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, detailed to the court the relationship she shared with the former Police Detective.
The accused told the court yesterday that she met Bobb-Blackman four years before he was found dead in the septic tank at her La Parfaite Harmonie residence.
Jeffers claimed that a few years after she met the detective, their relationship ended after she found out that her lover was “gay and HIV positive”.
Jeffers said that she was staying the United States at certain points of their relationship but that she returned sometime after and the policeman attacked her after he saw her with another man. She told the court that he kicked and slapped her.
Murder accused
Desiree Jeffers
The woman said that she subsequently left for the United States. She said that when she returned to Guyana, Bobb-Blackman picked her up in a vehicle at the airport. Jeffers said that she noticed items in the back of the vehicle: a wheelbarrow, sledgehammer, and barbed wire.
She said that in January 2011 she received a call from one of Bobb- Blackman’s relatives, who told her that he was missing. Jeffers said that she drove to La Grange Police Station, where she met the policeman’s brother and a woman whom she didn’t know. She said that it was after the policeman’s body was found in the septic tank that she learnt the name of the woman to be Gail Franker. Franker was having a common-law relationship with the policeman.
“After he beat me up, we ended up with a court matter…. But I didn’t know Gail Franker and I never threatened anyone or kill Bobb- Blackman.”
The accused claimed that it was because of her kindness that she was in jail. Jeffers said that she tried to explain to the arresting officer that she was nowhere around when Bobb-Blackman was killed, but the officer didn’t listen, he just arrested her.
Earlier in the trial, prosecution witnesses, Gail Franker and Claudette Bobb-Blackman told the court that Jeffers had threatened to kill the policeman several times before his body was later found in a septic tank.
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