Witness recalls seeing man walking away from cousin’s body

Hearing a loud explosion on New Year’s Day 2015, Hilary Clarke looked out from her upstairs bedroom window and saw murder accused Renaldo Carter walking away from something on the ground that was partially hidden by her neighbour’s hedge.

Testifying in the No. 5 Supreme Court on Tuesday, she said that it was only when she went outside and looked behind the foliage that she saw Jason Carter, the accused’s cousin, lying on the ground.

Clarke, a neighbour of the Carters, was giving evidence before a 12-member jury as the trial of Renaldo Stevenson Kirkley Carter, of 1st Avenue, Vauxhall, Christ Church continued. The accused is charged with murdering his cousin on January 1, 2015.

“I was on the telephone and I heard a loud explosion and my daughter made a statement to me . . . . I looked across the road and saw an object on the ground. I could not see what the object was because the fence was blocking . . . . It was near the hedges in front of [the cousins’ grandmother’s] house,” she said.

“I saw Renaldo then walk away, went to the side of his house, and in about five seconds or so, he walked back around, and he had a bag on his shoulder and an object in his left hand, and he walked and went up the gap,” she said.

Clarke said she and her daughter waited until the accused had gotten halfway up the gap before they crossed the road and went behind the hedges. “I saw Jason on the ground . . . . He was just lying on the ground.”

The witness told Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis that when she first looked out the window, she saw the accused standing behind the hedges.

She said she knew Renaldo, who lived next door to the deceased, from the time he was a child, as his mother had been her best friend.

During cross-examination by attorney Marlon Gordon, she stated that she did not know what caused the deceased to be on the ground.

Earlier in the proceedings, police photographer Constable Kyle Hinds and Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police Dale Crichlow gave evidence.

The trial continues on Friday.

Madam Justice Pamela Beckles is presiding over the trial.