Crime Chief Leslie James yesterday stated that police did not have sufficient evidence to convict Donald Rodney of the possession of explosives as he was following his brother Dr. Walter Rodney, who died in a bomb explosion in 1980.
He made this pronouncement at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Rodney’s death yesterday while under cross-examination by attorney Andrew Pilgrim, who is representing Walter Rodney’s wife and children.
He stated that there was also not sufficient evidence from his perusal of police files to charge Donald Rodney, who was in the car with Walter Rodney when it exploded, with murder.
“Frankly, I don’t think so,” he said, while he was being quizzed about the Guyana Police Force’s role in “deliberately ignoring information” which may have led to the arrest of Gregory Smith.
Smith has long been accused of the killing of Walter Rodney, who died on June 13, 1980 in his brother’s car at John and Bent streets after a walkie-talkie given to him exploded.
James said he believes that Donald Rodney “always felt that he was uplifting a walkie-talkie” instead of an explosive device. He stated that in Donald Rodney’s statement there was no indication of his awareness of any explosive.
James added that he had stated in his earlier testimony that Walter Rodney was reckless because he had not acted
