Witnesses with details linked to toolbox deny involvement in court
Two people whose contact details were listed on a courier package containing guns and drugs told Supreme Court yesterday that they had nothing to do with it.
Three men from Pembroke 25-year-olds Justin Calderon and Kershun Dublin, and 45-year-old Arthur Dill are on trial facing charges over the four handguns and $25,000 of cannabis discovered at the airport last April.
They deny conspiring together and with others not before the courts to import the drugs, and to possess the guns and ammunition.
In his opening speech to the jury on August 25, prosecutor Robert Welling explained that the parcel was addressed to a Terry Stevens, of Smith's, who is a real person. However, Mr. Stevens never asked anyone to ship the toolbox. Likewise, the cellphone contact number listed on the package belonged to Antoinette Bolden but she never asked for anything to be shipped either.
The Police carried out a "controlled delivery" of the parcel, and put it back into the DHL circulation to see who picked it up. Ten days later, it is alleged that each of the defendants became involved in the transportation of the package from DHL to the location where the Police found it again in a shed adjacent to Calderon's home in Mission Lane.
Yesterday, on the closing day of the prosecution case, Mr. Welling called Mr. Stevens and Mrs. Bolden to give evidence. Mr. Stevens said he'd not asked for the toolbox to be shipped to him. However, he confirmed that his landline telephone number and his address were listed in the Bermuda telephone directory last year.
Mrs. Bolden, of Hamilton Parish, said she'd never given anyone permission to use her cellphone as a contact number, outside of normal family and business arrangements.
Mr. Welling asked: "Were you in any way responsible either directly, or through other people, for importing into Bermuda in April 2008 a toolbox?"–"No," she replied.
The jury also heard further testimony regarding the issue of telephone records. They had heard on Tuesday that a landline telephone number registered to Calderon's mother at the family residence in Mission Lane called a number registered to the DHL parcel firm on April 29 last year. The call, at 11.59 a.m, lasted for 19 seconds.
The following day, a call was placed from the DHL number to the Calderon number at 3.22 p.m, and connected for one minute and 14 seconds.
Yesterday, Calderon's lawyer, Elizabeth Christopher, established from one of Dublin's friends, Tianna Paiva, that Dublin often spent time at the Calderon residence.
Ms Paiva said in answer to Ms Christopher that Dublin's cellphone sometimes did not work at the time in question because it was prepaid, and had run out of credit, and that he would sometimes borrow her phone to make calls.
She agreed that she would sometimes phone the Calderon number to see if Dublin was there. When it was suggested to her that Dublin would use the Calderon phone to call her, Ms Paiva replied that he would call from a number that was blocked and so it did not show up on her display.
The case continues.
