The trial of 34-year-old May Pen businesswoman Althea Morgan-Carr continued yesterday with the main prosecution witness testifying that on two occasions she accompanied the accused to obeahmen in Manchester and St Elizabeth.

She said Morgan-Carr's reason for going to the obeahmen was to be freed of charges of possession and attempting to export cocaine.

The witness, a teacher, was testifying in the Home Circuit Court at the conspiracy to the murder trial of Morgan-Carr and her co-accused Stephen Smith and Calgette Gilbert, also from May Pen, Clarendon.

Prosecutors Jeremy Taylor and Annette Hanson are marshalling evidence before Supreme Court judge Carol Lawrence-Beswick and the seven-member jury that in January 2005 the three conspired to murder Inspector Lorraine Elleston.

The policewoman had charged Morgan-Carr in September 2004 after she was found with cocaine at the Norman Manley International Airport.

numerous attempts

The witness said Morgan-Carr made numerous attempts to bribe Elleston and to get someone at the court's office to destroy the file. When her attempts failed, she sought the help of obeahmen. She said Morgan-Carr asked her to get someone to kill the policewoman because she did not want to go to prison.

She said Morgan-Carr called her several times and asked her to accompany someone to the courthouse to point out the policewoman.

The witness said she reported the plot to the police because while she was in agreement with the "bribery" she was not in agreement with the murder. She, in February 2005 at Morgan-Carr's request, went with Smith to the Corporate Area Resi-dent Magistrate's Court to point out Elletson. She said she looked in the courtroom but did not see the policewoman.

The witness admitted under cross-examination by attorney-at-law Geroge Soutar, who represents Morgan-Carr, that she went to prison for false pretences committed in 1996. She said when she met Morgan-Carr in 2004 they were at the Central Village lock-up. She said she was arrested in 2003 in connection with a visa racket involving school trips.