IN JAMAICA VERDICT SOON?: Jurors urged to ground judgement on evidence in Vybz Kartel trial Busta Rhymes, others turn out to support artiste.......Judge cautioned jurors not to take Vybz Kartel's music or the evidence of "locking of guns" into consideration in arriving at their verdict.

JUSTICE Lennox Campbell yesterday completed the first day of summation in the Vybz Kartel murder trial, a day that saw United States-based rap stars Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star present in the number two courtroom of the Home Circuit Court where the matter is being tried.

International rap star Busta Rhymes (left)
and Michael Dawson, who co-authored the
book Voice of the Ghetto with Vybz Kartel, leaving
the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston
 yesterday where the murder trial of
Vybz Kartel and four other men are being held.

Outside the courtroom, Busta Rhymes greeted and spoke with relatives of Vybz Kartel before leaving. He returned in the afternoon after court was adjourned and it was expected that he had planned on visiting with Vybz Kartel yesterday. However, efforts by local journalists to get comments from the rap star were unsuccessful.

Campbell's summation to the 11-member panel of jurors, who are to decide the fate of the dancehall artiste and his four co-accused, started minutes after 10:00 am and was marked by meticulous attention to the details of the prosecution's case. The judge took his time repeating certain strong points of the prosecution's case to a jury that seemed at times weary.

On the other hand, Campbell seemed to have dealt with the defence's case in a cursory manner, which at one point caused attorney Tom Tavares-Finson to rise to his feet to clarify an issue concerning a voice supposedly of his client on electronic evidence presented during the trial. Campbell told the jurors that the artiste never denied that the voice was his "You said that the accused didn't deny the voice was his. But the accused is saying that the voice was manipulated," said Tavares-Finson, pointing out that the way it was explained by the judge was unfair to his client.

Campbell then briefly told the jurors that the artiste had, indeed, claimed that the voice on the recordings were "spliced" or "manipulated". However, the judge proceeded to point out to the jurors that they have heard the artiste's voice and will have to determine whether the voice attributed to him had been manipulated.

At another point, Justice Campbell told jurors that they would have to ask themselves why the accused would invite Clive 'Lizard' Williams — the man whose alleged murder the five accused are being tried for — to a darkened house and pointed out to them that the walls were high and no one could see into the yard from outside.. more