Accused tells jury: Prosecution gave you nothing

The prosecution has failed to produce the necessary ingredients to prove its case against him, alleged bank robber Malcolm Marlon Archer claimed today.

“Basically the prosecution ain’t give y’all nothing. Y’all should be provided with sugar, you should be provided with limes. The prosecution should not be giving y’all oranges and asking you to make lemonade. This is a very, very serious matter here,” the Lowthers Hill, Christ Church resident told the nine-member jury as he delivered his closing submissions this afternoon.

He urged jurors in the No. 3 Supreme Court who heard his case to “take a lot of things into consideration” when Justice Christopher Birch hands over the case to them tomorrow, after the summation.

Archer, is being tried on a charge that he entered the Black Rock branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia on January 27, 2015 and stole $14,573 in cash while armed with a gun.

“I am just asking that y’all look at everything that was said and done here. Look at it as a whole, don’t just focus on specific parts. Just take everything into consideration,” he said as he focused on the evidence given by some of the police officers who were witnesses for the Crown.

“These officers are saying that I say this and I say that. I just want you all to take note of the fact that I denied those things from beginning to the end. I maintain the position that I was forced to admit to these things under some very tried circumstances that y’all will not even begin to comprehend. I just want to maintain that, that as a result of those things basically that’s why I here.

“Basically the prosecution ain’t give y’all nothing. The prosecution is asking y’all to go out on a limb, you understand . . . That is not enough,” the accused stressed, as the prosecutor Senior Crown Counsel Olivia Davis listened. She was not able to give closing remarks as Archer is unrepresented by legal counsel.

The accused added: “Stick to the facts. The facts are that the prosecution has not put forward any facts linking me to this crime. Basically it boils down to a credibility contest and right now, as I said, I am at a disadvantage.

“I just ask once more that y’all be mindful of the facts or the lack of facts because . . . there had no one or nothing to prove that I actually do these things. [It] is only two police coming and saying I tell them these things.”

Justice Birch is expected to begin his summation around 9:15 a.m.