Witnesses, including doctor, testify at Attempted Murder Trial

On February twenty-seventh, Attorney Rodwell Williams took the stand for the first time and gave an account of how he was shot on May thirty-first, 2010. Williams told the court that around seven-twenty that night, he left his office on Albert Street and was heading to his car, when two men rode up on bicycles, one began to struggle with his security guard, and the other pointed a gun at him and fired a shot which caught him in the abdomen. He identified the shooter as Akeem Thurton.  But Thurton said that Ricky Valencia was the one who did the shooting. Thurton appeared in court this morning, where as many as six witnesses testified in the attempted murder trial including doctor, Emmerson Mungia, who performed as many as five surgeries on Williams. Mungia told the court that Williams had suffered a number of complications and sixty to seventy percent blood loss due to the gunshot injuries. After his fifth operation, he was transferred to a U.S hospital. Also taking the stand, were Corporal Arcadio Chun and Sergeant Alfonso Aban of CIB. The officers told the court that Thurton willingly agreed to participate in an identification parade. According to Aban, Williams pointed out Thurton from among several other men, in the lineup.  But at the end of the exercise, Thurton said he wasn’t satisfied with the way it was carried out. During the cross-examination, he told the courts that he was forced to participate in the ID parade and was later beaten up by officers, but police denied the allegations. The case was adjourned for Tuesday morning before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin.