One of the suspects in last year's smash-and-grab Rolex armed robbery allegedly borrowed a hammer hours before the hold-up, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say two men walked into the store and one of them smashed the glass display case with a hammer and collected 13 watches, together worth $395,360.
The Crown alleges that Jonathan Armbrister, David Collins and Jasper Curry were involved in the heist on May 22, 2011. The robbers left the hammer behind as they fled onto Bay Street.
Yesterday, the court deemed the woman, who prosecutors say loaned Armbrister the hammer, as a hostile witness.
Questioned by prosecutor Sandradee Gardiner, the woman denied that she saw Armbrister between the hours of 9 a.m. and midday on the day of the robbery.
The witness admitted that she told police that she had loaned Armbrister a hammer that he never returned. She said the hammer was orange and black with a speck of yellow paint on it.
When Gardiner showed the witness the hammer collected by police, she said it was not hers. The witness claimed that she placed her initials on all of her tools and she did not see her identifying mark on the tool.
Gardiner showed the woman the statement she made to police on May 25, 2011 after they showed her the hammer they collected from the crime scene
The woman allegedly told police, "I am almost certain that the hammer I saw is mine because of the paint."
But the witness said, "Those are his [the officer's] words. I never told him that." The witness denied that she was lying.
During cross-examination, Armbrister's lawyer produced an orange and black hammer of his own. The witness said that it was similar to the hammer she had loaned Armbrister.
Geoffrey Farquharson represents Collins and Jomo Campbell represents Curry, who is the only defendant on bail.

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