Orvil Christopher outside the Magistrate's Court yesterday March 10, 2015. Photo: VINO

Christopher stood in his own defense as when his case was called earlier that day Attorney at Law Ruthilia Maximea had informed the court that, as a result of Christopher being financially embarrassed and not being able to meet his financial obligations, she was no longer representing him.

The case was put down and recalled later when he was left to put questions to the first witness in the trial.

The witness, Michel Etienne- a Scenes of Crime Investigator, told the court that he had retrieved a pair of trousers, a pair of Nike slippers and a pair of socks at the scene, Horse Path, on May 20, 2014 where he was also pointed to the suspected point of entry and point of exit for the man accused of burgularising the home of one Mr Braithwaite.

The witness told the court that despite collecting a number of items believed to have been the property of the burglar, they took the decision of sending only the pair of trousers for DNA testing, which returned positive to that of Christopher’s.

He told the court that police had taken ‘a print’ off of Christopher for the DNA testing.

However, Christopher had a different story to tell even before taking the stand to give testimony. It was the opportunity given to him to question the witness. “Those are not my things, ” he told the court.

Christopher further informed the court that police officers had visited his home where he was at the time with his girlfriend and had allegedly collected a number of items, including his clothes. “They went with my clothes from my home. I don’t know what they did, couple officers don’t like me.”

He asserted that the police may have tried to set him up by planting his DNA on his trouser and that the DNA test may have been flawed. According to Christopher, he never owned that type of garment as the only type of short pants he has are jeans and he only wears Jordan slippers and not Nike.

“I don’t have no pants like that, I have short jeans pants. The officers came and searched through all my things and they can’t say they see any pants like that,” he said.

“I don’t know what they did with my clothes and try to pin on me.”