St Lucy resident Andre Omar Jackman said he told police back on September 30, 2018 that he knew nothing about the shooting incident that took place at Harrison’s Tenantry.
In fact, Jackman said he informed officers that CCTV footage from several businesses in the area and at his residence would identify his whereabouts on that day.
He was addressing High Court Judge Carlisle Greaves and a jury in the No. 3 Supreme Court as he gave an unsworn statement from the dock.
Jackman and Kaeron Sylvian Moore, both from Stroud Bay, St Lucy, and Shane Hakeem Omar Babb, a resident of Crab Hill, St Lucy, are on trial on charges of using an illegal firearm on September 30, 2018, as well as unlawfully and recklessly engaging in conduct that placed
Reshawn Greaves and Michael Abbott in danger of death or serious bodily harm.
Moore and Babb are also charged with damaging a house belonging to Chrisandra Greaves. Accused Jackman said after he was taken to the police station on the day of the alleged offence, he complained of pain but “nobody not playing me no mind”.
He was subsequently seen by a doctor who diagnosed him with soft tissue damage to both wrists, and prescribed medication.After that, he said, police took him from the cell and started to interview him from “one thing to the next”.
At one point, he recalled, lawmen asked him about a shooting.
“I told them, ‘I told you all yesterday I do not know nothing about what transpired up Harrisons Tenantry’,” Jackman said, adding that he told police he was near a shop that day “breezing”.
He said he also told police that the shop as well as a minimart on the other side of the road had cameras to confirm what he was saying.
“I told them the owner of the bar can attest to the fact that I was by the shop.
I further told them that my cameras home could view all of Harrison Tenantry, all areas around my house. So they could get my cameras and look at them . . . .
“Police told me I cannot come in the station and tell them how to do their job.
I told them I aware of that, but at the end of the day I still should get the opportunity to defend myself and prove my innocence.
Police tell me them don’t want to hear that,” he claimed.
Jackman said the following day he was feeling unwell but was questioned further even after informing the officer.
He claimed that the officers told him “that they understand I didn’t have nothing to do with it and all I have to do is to give them a written statement saying that Kaeron, Shane and the other men whose name I don’t want to call do the shooting out Harrison’s Tenantry”.
“I told the police, ‘well, I don’t know who do the shooting out there so I can’t tell you if it is Kaeron, Shane . . . who do the shooting,” the accused said.
Jackman said police came at him the following day again and told them that he would be charged.
“I told them, ‘you’ll cant charge me for no offence when I tell you they got cameras there . . . . I was in the station minutes after this incident. People saw me,” he said, adding that he was given the charges soon after.
Jackman explained that in another interview, police told him that it had been brought to their attention that he had uttered some words.
“[They said] that I said some words of ‘blood do something in the earth or something’. I told the police I don’t even speak like that. Them ain’t my words. I was surprised to get in this court and I heard other statements that them say that I say that, I never, ever say at all, at all,” Jackman insisted.
He added: “This is my testimony and that is the truth about what transpired on the September 30, 2018 and the ensuing days.”
Moore and Babb are expected to address the court on Wednesday.
Senior crown Counsel Neville Watson and acting Senior Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett are prosecuting the case.
Jackman is being represented by Michael Lashley Q.C. and Associates while defence counsel Shadia Simpson is representing accused
Moore and Babb is represented by attorney Verla Depeiza.
