A man has suggested an innocent explanation for why his fingerprints were found at the scene of a burglary.
Tewolde Mahdin Selassie, 29, of Fenton's Drive, Pembroke told a seven-man, five-woman jury yesterday that he had once gone to the house looking for work and knocked on the front door and a window.
He denies a single count of burgling a woman's home in Pembroke on April 29, 2005 and stealing her handbag containing cash, a cellphone and other personal property.
The complainant is not being named for legal reasons.
Giving evidence that lasted only fifteen minutes, Mr. Selassie said that he had previously met the alleged victim when "she stopped and introduced herself as my cousin".
"I went to her address once," he told Ms Christopher, "because I was doing painting and electrical work in the neighbourhood for a few of the neighbours who can vouch for me but I couldn't find them because of my incarceration."
Continuing that he thought that the woman could give him some work, Mr. Selassie testified: "I was out of work a few weeks before being picked up by the police."
Tracing the woman to her nearby house in the afternoon one day in late April 2005, he told the jury that he found her car in the yard.
"After a few knocks," he said, "with the car in the yard I assumed someone was home so I knocked on the window nearest the door. I don't know where I knocked, but I know it wasn't on the glass itself."
Evidence
The jury earlier heard that fingerprints were found on the frame of a window used by the burglar to flee the house when the complainant discovered him leaving during the night, and that Mr. Selassie told investigators that he had never been to the house.
Fingerprint expert Monique Hill told the jury in undisputed evidence that she had identified Mr. Selassie's right thumb as one of two marks left on that window frame; the other belonged to the complainant herself.
Sergeant Ronald Taylor recounted to the jury that Mr. Selassie had said several times during a tape-recorded interview that he had never been to the complainant's house and that he had not burgled it.
That interview was not played in court and the Crown didn't produce the transcript in its evidence.
Under cross-examination by Senior Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney, though, Mr. Selassie agreed that he had lied about never having gone to the complainant's house but said that he lied for a reason.
"I said no many times," he admitted. "The main reason was I was picked up for a crime two and a half years ago and still haven't been charged.
"The police accused me of many crimes. I went on line ups and was never picked out. I won't say the police were framing me but I hadn't broken into that house so I said I had never been to the house before."
The trial continues before Puisne Judge Charles-etta Simmons. Barrister Elizabeth Christopher is representing Mr. Selassie.
