‘Fifty Cents’ music fills the air in court — Row over relevance of ‘Gladiator’ interview

THE MUSIC of rap artiste “Fifty Cents” filtered out of the  Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court yesterday, causing those on the outside to wonder if Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls had gone mad. The music, however, was part of a recording of a radio talk show that was being used as evidence in the preliminary inquiry of the conspiracy to murder charge laid against Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr. Bakr, 62, was charged on August 21, 2003, for conspiring with others to murder two expelled members of the Jamaat at Citrine Drive, Diego Martin. The two men, Salim “Small Salim” Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah, were shot and wounded outside the Movie Towne cineplex on June 4, 2003. Rasheed’s girlfriend, Jillia Bowen was fatally shot.

Aubaidah, who had already given his evidence-in-chief, was expected to be further cross-examined by defence attorney Pamela Elder SC. Deputy DPP Carla Brown-Antoine, however, informed the magistrate that Aubaidah was on his way to the court and requested that the evidence of another witness, Steve Anthony Khan, be heard first. Elder had no objections. Khan, production manager at Power 102 FM and the morning co-host of a radio talk show hosted by Ricardo “Gladiator” Welch, was called to the witness stand. His evidence included two CDs containing the recording of a programme that had been aired on May 27, 2003. Rasheed and Aubaidah had been guests on the programme at the Abercromby Street studio, and the Imam had voiced his opinions via the telephone. McNicolls ordered that the CDs be heard in their entirety, and, for almost two hours, those present in the courtroom were forced to listen to rap music, commercials, promotions, the actual interview and the opinions of callers. 

Brown-Antoine then requested of McNicolls that the CDs be admitted into evidence, which invoked an objection from Elder. “The fundamental basis of admittance is relevance,” she said, “and everything on the discs are not relevant to this matter.” She suggested that the programme be truncated, so as to include only the relevant parts, and requested that a transcript of the contents of the discs be made available to her by the State attorney. “It would be difficult for me to cross-examine the witness using a recording,” she said. Elder had earlier objected to the admittance of the CDs into evidence before their contents were heard in court, on the grounds that a chain of custody had not been established. The discs, she said, had been passed to several hands since the programme had been recorded on them. In addition, Elder said, the discs that were presented to the court were not the original recording of the programme.  

In response, Brown-Antoine had argued that the chain of custody did not affect admissibility. If after the recordings were re-played in court and the witness indicated that they had been tampered with, then the chain of custody would come into play, she said. Regarding the originality of the recordings, she said, the programme was edited at “both ends.” The important part, which was the interview, had not been edited. The witness, she added, would attest to this after the contents of the discs were heard. The Deputy DPP assured the magistrate that a transcript of the recording would be made available on the next occasion and that she would identify the parts that were relevant to the matter and “isolate” them. Bakr will re-appear in court on January 28.