Jury hears new details of murder victim
A few more tantalising details emerged yesterday into the Lagoon Park murder victim, the mysterious American Stanley Lee.
The ten woman, two man jury saw for the first time a photograph of Mr. Lee, smiling from a New York State licence to handle asbestos and staring intently into his New Jersey driver's licence which listed his residence of 1045 Broad Street in Pleasantville.
The relatively small pictures have been projected onto a large screen in the court and stand in stark contrast to another photo of the sad sight of the once burly Mr. Lee laying face up and withering away in bushes after 13 days alone.
After four days of trial, the jury has seen three graphic photos of Mr. Lee's decaying body and several photos of individual bones after they had been separated, cleaned and clinically examined by Former Government pathologist John Obafunwa.
The pace of the trial slowed yesterday as prosecutors laboured to introduce photographic and documentary evidence collected and catalogued by Det. Insp. Junior Watts.
Dentist James Fay of Paget Dental Group took the stand and defended his identification of the body found on August 9, 2001 as Mr. Lee, saying he was "confident" after comparing a dental chart that he had produced with charts obtained from the US Federal Prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey and New York's Ulster Correctional.
The court has already heard that Mr. Lee was known during his stay at Ulster Correctional in 1995 as Eddie Montalvo.
But the jury learned that the man known to the US Bureau of Prisons as Stanley Lee was found in Bermuda with a 1964 New York State birth certificate in the name of Sean Russells.
Dr. Obafunwa has claimed it was the same man after finding a bullet lodged in a rib and detailed in prison medical records.
The asbestos licence revealed that he was six feet, four inches tall and weighed 240 pounds ? while an office security card for 'Worldwide Entertainment' showed Sean Russells was the CEO.
The identification papers were found inside an Oleander Cycles' livery cycle rented in Russells' name. Police also obtained several local phone numbers and what are apparently US phone numbers.
Many of the Bermuda phone numbers include the local area code of 441 while other numbers include only the three digit prefix number and the four digit phone number.
Three Bermudian men, Robert Blair Tucker, Terranz Sidney (Monster) Smith and James Alan (Spooks) Dill deny killing Mr. Lee in the isolated, heavily wooded Ireland Island South park on July 28, 2001 after their drug deal with him turned bad.
After retired Police photographer Theodore Providence finished his narration of videotape of the scene at Lagoon Park, Dr. Fay made a comparison between the two dental charts from Fort Dix and Ulster Correctional and found they were the same.
He then made a comparison on the dental charts on the "John Doe" that had been found at Lagoon Park and the chart from Fort Dix.
Dental charts note the number of teeth, the type, number and location of dental fillings and other modifications.
He said the charts showed to a "virtual certainty" it was Mr. Lee but said he could not "give a percentage" as is done for fingerprint experts, when asked by Smith's lawyer Ed Bailey.
When asked by Dill's lawyer Liz Christopher how often dental chart is done, Dr. Fay said he does it on a daily basis but his chart on Mr. Lee was the first time he had done it to identify a dead body.
When challenged on his expertise, the dental surgeon of 23 years experience said: "I was asked to compare the dental conditions of one chart with another chart and the technique is the same whether the person is alive or dead.
"Given the tools (he had), we have a written chart and you have some X-rays and I'm comparing what I see ? given the limitations of that ? the match up is as certain as I could be (that it was the body of Stanley Lee)."
The trial continues this morning before Puisne Justice Norma Wade-Miller.