Jam Grasp Jay’s ongoing homicide case has discovered itself in a tricky spot after one of many prosecution’s key witnesses has been accused of being “unreliable.”
In court docket paperwork obtained by AllHipHop, key witness Lydia Excessive has been accused of ID’ing the fallacious particular person by the legislation workplace of Ezra Spilke, who’s at present representing accused shooter Ronald Washington.
Spilke reportedly wrote a letter to Choose LaShann DeArcy Corridor, noting “impairing elements” in Excessive’s judgment, together with “the suspect being partially disguised, a cross-racial and cross-ethnic identifications and identification procedures vulnerable to bias.”
“At the moment, we anticipate that at the very least 4 of those elements might be at play right here, particularly: weapon focus; excessive stress triggered by aggressive habits; a protracted delay between the occasion and the identification; and co-witness suggestions,” the docs learn.
Lydia Excessive was current on the recording studio the evening JMJ was gunned down and initially claimed that “[t]wo black males entered the [sitting room] and each males had weapons. Upon getting into, one man remained within the doorway, the opposite man, who was sporting a knit wool masks and holding a gun, ordered Lydia [High] to the ground.
“The person with the masks then ordered Mr. Mizell to the ground, at which period Uriel Rincon stood as much as help…Mr. Mizell. The person with the masks then shot Mr. Mizell, fired one other shot and fled out of the doorway with the opposite man.”
However Spilke alleges that this was incorrect and that, “in accordance with Ms. Excessive, solely the shooter was sporting a masks.”
“Ms. Excessive, who was interviewed by the police shortly after the taking pictures, did not determine as a participant Mr. Washington, whom she later instructed the authorities she had recognized for ‘quite a few years,” Spilke wrote.
“9 months after the taking pictures, Ms. Excessive’s account modified in that she then knew the identification of one of many members: Washington, whom she recognized from a photograph array.
He continued: “In figuring out Washington, Excessive instructed the police that he was the one who pointed a gun at her and instructed her to ‘get on the bottom’ whereas the masked particular person shot Mizell.”
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The protection mentioned it would seemingly name Dr. Geoffrey Loftus to the stand throughout the forthcoming trial. Loftus is an experimental psychologist with experience in human reminiscence, visible notion and eyewitness identification, who they are going to use to immediately push again towards Excessive’s recollection of the homicide.
“We anticipate that Dr. Loftus will first testify that the circumstances of the occasion that Ms. Excessive might be requested to recall strongly impeded her capability to type correct reminiscence of the occasion,” the docs proceed. “These circumstances embrace a possible lack of consideration on Ms. Excessive’s half to the shooters’ appearances, together with the high-stress and weapon-focus elements.”
They conclude: “Ms. Excessive’s identifications of Mr. Washington from the photograph lineup or in open court docket could also be unreliable for a number of causes. Dr. Loftus’s descriptions of those causes to the jury will present the jurors with vital scientific data based mostly on which they’ll allocate applicable weight to Ms. Excessive’s identifications. For these causes, Dr. Loftus’s testimony is related and might be useful to the trier of reality.”
Jam Grasp Jay was killed inside his Jamaica, Queens studio on October 30, 2002, with Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. being indicted for the homicide 20 years later.
The court docket has but to set a date for the trial, however jury choice is reportedly underway.
