The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE business partner of a murdered CEO told a court he was on a business call in his office when he heard a “loud bang”and then a second one shortly after the first.

John Heney, of the Britannia Consulting Group, said it was a second loud bang that got his attention as he looked out of a window and saw a slim, tall, dark-skinned man running away across a field from the Compass Point office.

Looking through a second window, he saw his business partner and CEO Hywel Jones lying on the ground of the parking lot in a pool of blood, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

As Mr Heney told of what he saw on the morning of April 22, 2009, 29-year-old Franklyn Stubbs sat in the prisoner’s dock behind his attorney, Dorcee McPhee, listening.

Stubbs faces a charge of murder, which he denies, allegedly causing the death of 55-year-old Jones of West Bay Street.

Mr Jones had just pulled up in the parking lot of his office when he was approached by a gunman and shot in the head as he was getting out of his Chevrolet Equinox.

Jones was rushed to Doctors Hospital and died of his injuries two weeks later after being declared brain dead.

Stubbs was taken into police custody a year later and charged in connection with the death.

Prosecutors Darnell Dorsett and Basil Cumberbatch alleged that he was the gunman in a killing that had been dubbed an “execution” by police.

Yesterday, Mr Heney took the witness stand and said April 22, 2009, was a day he would never forget.

“I’m always in to work around 8.30 in the morning. I’m always the first in,” he said.

Mr Heney added that the company president, Mr Jones, always arrived around 9.30am due to the late hours he worked.

“Could you tell us whether you saw Mr Jones on that day?” Ms Dorsett asked.

“I saw Mr Jones with a bullet wound in his head lying in the parking lot,” the financial consultant said.

He recounted the morning: “I was on the telephone with a client. I heard a loud bang. It took time to register. I believe it was the second bang that got my attention,” Mr Heney said.

“I stood up and looked out the window. I saw a tall dark, dark skinned gentleman running away across the field. I did not see Mr Jones from the window where I was standing. I ran to another window and I saw Mr Jones lying on the ground in a pool of blood and a man still running,” the witness said.

Mr Heney ran downstairs to attend to his friend and colleague and getting close to him, presumed that he was dead until he made groaning and gasping sounds.

“Did you see anything else while with Mr Jones?” Ms Dorsett asked.

“Blood and grey matter. The back of his head was blown off,” the man said.

The prosecutor asked the witness what vehicle Jones had driven to work and he said “a blue SUV, I think an Equinox.”

Mr Heney said the door was still open with Jones lying slightly under the SUV with his briefcase lying on the ground.

“And what were you doing at the time?” the prosecutor asked.

“I was doing a lot of yelling at people to make sure the police were phoned and an ambulance was on the way,” he said, adding that it was all happening “very quickly.”

“Are you able to describe the man you saw running away?”

“Tall, quite slim, fairly darkish complexion,” the consultant said.

The prosecutor asked the consultant if he could give an estimated distance of himself from the man running away.

“From here to that policeman in the corner,” the man said pointing at the policeman from the witness stand.

“You said you ran to another window and still saw the man running away?” Ms Dorsett asked.

“Yes but from a greater distance,” he said, adding that his office looks right out into the building’s parking lot.

“On the first occasion, you saw him for how long?” the prosecutor asked.

“Three to four seconds,” the witness answered. Mr Heney said he saw the man for two seconds on the second glance, getting a side and back view of the individual running away.

“Are you able to describe what he was wearing?” the prosecutor asked.

“He had on a faded blue jeans, a cream or light coloured shirt” the witness said.

“Did he have on anything else?” the prosecutor asked.

“He had a hat on,” the man answered.

“Did you see anything else?” the prosecutor asked. Mr Heney said that he saw another man standing in his back yard. He said he knew the man as he’d seen and chatted with him occasionally walking the beach.

Mr Heney said this man, whom he knew as an EMS personnel, began attending to Mr Jones. The court heard from Mr Heney that it took “quite a while” for paramedics to arrive “but the police were there pretty quickly.”

Mr Heney said that two nurses from the nearby clinic came and assisted the EMS until paramedics arrived and transported Mr Jones to the hospital. Mr Heney went too.

Mr Heney attended an identification parade in March 2010. The man he pointed out was Stubbs, he said, the man who “ran from the scene.”

Asked if he ever saw Mr Jones again, Mr Heney said he visited several times during his colleague’s stay in the ICU.

“Mr Jones never regained consciousness. He was in a total vegetative state until his death,” Mr Heney said.

“It was a couple of months later that we had a memorial for him,” he added.

Under cross-examination, McPhee quizzed the witness about the ID parade:

“In your words you saw this person from 60 feet away for four seconds? And you want this jury to believe that you could remember this picture a year later?” the attorney asked.

“I will go to my grave with that picture on my mind. I will never forget that day,” Mr Heney said.

“I suggest you never had a picture in your mind to remember a year later to go to your grave,” the attorney said. “Did you see the person’s nose?” the attorney asked.

“I saw his profile,” the man answered.

“In four seconds?” said the attorney.

“Could you describe the colour of his eyes?” the attorney asked. The consultant said he could not.

“So you saw a guy running away from you putting a hat on in that four seconds?” said the attorney.

“Yes,” Mr Heney said adding that four seconds could be a long time.

Mr Heney said he went to the parade alone but came across someone he knew, who was not a staff member at the company.

“I put it that there was a speaker on that persons could hear you while you attended the parade,” the attorney said.

“I put it to you, you did not identify him,” Mr McPhee said.

“That is not so. I identified him,” the witness said.

Mr McPhee asked how far was the desk from the window and what did he see when looking out.

Mr Heney said the desk was two and a half feet from the window adding: “I observed the individual running across the field.”

“Where’d this person come from?” the attorney asked.

“I don’t know where he came from,” the consultant said.

“And he was running east and looking back?” the prosecutor said. Mr Heney said yes.

“So he was running without looking where he was going?” the attorney asked.

“For a time, yes,” the consultant said.

“You don’t think you could be making a mistake of that person you saw?” the attorney asked. Mr Heney said “I don’t.”

“I just want justice done,” the consultant added.

The attorney asked if the individual had anything in his hands. The witness said a shirt and something else appeared to be in the man’s hand, which he seemed to be fumbling with.

The attorney suggested that the witness had only identified someone at the parade because he couldn’t say who the individual was and just “wanted justice done.”

“You just want someone to suffer for it,” said the attorney.

“Not really. I’m over it. I’d rather not be here,” Mr Heney said.

Ms Dorsett asked the witness if he was sure of the identity of the person he saw at the parade and on the day in question.

“I am 98 per cent sure and my statement to police said that,” Mr Heney said.

The prosecutor also asked the witness if he wanted an innocent man to suffer because of his concern for his friend and business partner.

“Not at all,” the consultant said.

“I am not here to taint anyone to get even for my best friend’s murder. I want it to be the right guy,” Mr Heney said.

The trial resumes today at 10am.