The Crown closed its case yesterday after calling 17 witnesses at the trial of 26-year-old labourer Sheldon Pusey, who is charged with the murder of 64-year-old Ambassador Peter King.

Defence lawyer Berry Bryan will be making submissions today in the absence of the 12-member jury.

The Crown, represented by prosecutors Caroline Hay and Dahlia Findlay, led evidence that King was fatally stabbed and chopped at his home at 11A Waterloo Road, Kingston 10, between March 19 and 20, 2006.

Pusey was arrested and charged in March 2007.

Denies suggestion

Yesterday, the investigating officer, Superintendent McArthur Sutherland, denied suggestions put to him during cross-examination that he visited Pusey at the lock-up on March 5, 2007, and had discussions with him.

He denied the suggestion that after Pusey told him what had happened at the deceased's house, he (Sutherland) told Pusey that he must have been acting in self-defence.

Clarifying the interview

Sutherland told Bryan several times during cross-examination that he did not see the accused on March 5, 2007, but Bryan kept on making suggestions that he saw the accused on that day. Bryan also suggested that Pusey told Sutherland he could not remember everything that took place at the deceased's house because he was drugged, but he said no such conversation took place.

Sutherland testified that he interviewed Pusey on March 6, 2007, and Bryan was present as duty counsel representing Pusey. Pusey said during the interview that King was forcing him to be intimate with him when he grabbed a knife from a bedside table and "stab and cut, stab and cut him". He said King fell to the floor and he covered him with a sheet and left the premises.

The trial began on January 19 before Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh and the jury in the Home Circuit Court.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com