The marathon Lagoon Park murder trial took another strange twist yesterday when the policeman who arrested defendant Blair Tucker admitted he could not identify him.

A uniform officer on the evening of August 9, 2001, Marvin Telemaque said he had been given instructions to arrest Tucker at his Astwood Close, Pembroke home on a charge of obtaining credit by fraud.

Three men, Tucker, James (Spook) Dill and Terranz Sidney (Monster) Smith, deny killing mysterious American, Stanley Lee on July 28, 2001 in what prosecutors and Police claim was a drug deal gone bad.

The Crown alleges that relations soured between Tucker and Mr. Lee - a burly ex-con sent here to facilitate cocaine smuggling - after it was discovered the cocaine was of poor quality.

Mr. Lee's skeletonised body was found sprawled face up isolated Lagoon Park, Ireland Island South after Smith alerted Police to a dead body.

Smith maintains Police agreed to grant him immunity - a charge that has been vigorously denied by prosecutors.

After booking and seeing to other Police duties like witnessing the issuance of a prisoner's rights form, Det. Con. Telemaque - now a detective - had nothing further to do with the case.

Tucker's lawyer, Larry Scott hammered the officer on exactly when he dealt with Tucker, with the officer saying it was a "mistake" on his part that his witness statement dates his arrest of Tucker to August 8.

And Det. Con. Telemaque further admitted he does not know where his official Police notebook for that period is - despite it being standard procedure that officers keep them.

When asked by Crown counsel Juan Wolffe if he would recognise Tucker, Det. Con. Telemaque said "no, Sir" and he had to be prompted on where he arrested Tucker.

After giving his answer, Det. Con. Telemaque sneaked a quick look at the three men in the dock, shrugged and turned back toward Mr. Wolffe.

Later, the narcotics detective admitted that he typed his statement some two months after arresting Tucker and added: "My statement says on Thursday, 8 August. Thursday was the 9th August. I believe that was a mistake."

"When did it happen?" Mr. Scott asked, his voice rising in the courtroom. "Thursday, 9 August, 2001," the detective replied.

"Didn't you keep records of your movements?" Mr. Scott asked, referring to his Police notebook.

"This is from two years ago. I don't know where they are," Det. Con. Telemaque replied, adding that he had looked for them.

Mr. Scott withdrew a further question concerning the gravity of the charge Tucker would ultimately face, admitting the Constable would not have known that detectives wanted him held for further questioning.

Continuing from Friday, Dill's lawyer, Liz Christopher probed Det. Con. Green's conduct with her client in the days after his arrest, particularly Dill's declaration under questioning: "No, I don't want one (a lawyer). I didn't kill nobody."

Det. Con. Green claimed that "98 percent" of what he knows about the case came from his questioning of Dill and not from contact with other officers.

Ms Christopher continued to press the detective about whether Dill was properly cautioned about his rights and aware that his answers would be written down and could be used against him.

Det. Con. Green denied that taking two sets of notes was "two bites of the cherry" and he denied "handicapping" the defendant.

He explained: "The defendant was speaking and I recorded what he had to say. Mr. Dill is a very smart man. An intelligent man. Mr. Dill knows what he did."

The trial continues before Puisne Justice Norma Wade Miller and a ten woman, two man jury today.