Truck driver freed of larceny charges in St Mary

Fifty-three-year-old truck driver Michael Adair was yesterday freed of larceny charges in the St Mary Parish Court.

Allegations were that on December 7, 2021, he was intercepted by the police while piloting a stolen motor vehicle driven by another man, Lashawn Davidson.

It is alleged that the driver of the stolen motor vehicle told the police that he was paid $10,000 the night before to drive the motor vehicle into Kingston.

Adair, however, denied any involvement.

He claimed that it was the passenger in his own motor vehicle who had a connection to the vehicle which turned out to be stolen.

In court, Adair's lawyer Peter Champagnie, Q.C. argued that no credible excuse was given by the police as to why the passenger to which his client claimed was connected to the stolen vehicle was not also interrogated but released.

The credibility of one of the police's testimony was also shattered when, in the giving of evidence by video link, Champagnie brought to the court's attention that the police witness was being aided in her evidence by notes in a book, a conduct which was not permissible without the court's permission. 

When pressed, the witness admitted to using her book.

At the end of the prosecution's case, the judge upheld a submission made by another of Adair's lawyers, Javed Grant, that the witness had been discredited.

He was freed.

However, the judge ruled that Davidson, who is represented by John Jacobs, had a case to answer.

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