Accused admitted to armed break-in, cop tells court

A murder-accused man confessed to breaking into Andre Hinds’ home while armed, intending to steal drugs and money, before a scuffle caused the gun to go off, a police inspector told the No. 3 Supreme Court on Tuesday.

 

Richan Walrond, according to police, made the admission in a statement. But defence attorney Michael Rivera objected to oral statements, as well as the written confession, which he said were “false” and “obtained through force”. 

 

Walrond, of Back Ivy, St Michael, and Romario Renaldo Broomes, of Greenwich, St Lucy, have pleaded not guilty to the shooting death of Hinds on August 25, 2016.

 

Taking the witness stand, Inspector Darby Griffith began to read from Walrond’s written statement reportedly given on September 2, 2016, saying that the accused man had consented to the interrogation.

 

Rivera, who represents Walrond with counsel Safiya Moore, objected to “any orals attributed to Mr Walrond or written statements on the basis that they were false and those and any initials were obtained through force”. 

 

In the account, the court heard that Walrond was “breezing and smoking” by a man’s house for the whole day when a “brown-skinned” fellow who was to buy weed from the deceased informed him that Hinds “does got nuff money and does sell nuff drugs by the house and we could eat de food”. He said that man and three others began planning how to rob the same man.

 

“I get the gun from the same dark fella cause he had it,” the statement continued, adding that he and Bigs got dropped off and made their way through the bush by a house.

 

Inspector Griffith read: “When we got by the house we pulled the door and it broke…,Then me and Bigs went in the house whereas I saw a woman and man. I pointed the gun at the man and I hold him and ask him where de money and weed. Then me and him get into a scuffle in de yard. It start by the backdoor but we end up in the yard. Bigs then came by the backdoor and started shooting while me and the guy was scuffling. 

 

“The guy step back up in the backdoor and I step back up with him and de girl say she pregnant. So when de woman say so, the man was trying to get the gun from me whilst we was scuffling inside de house whereas the gun went off and he got shot. The woman took up the weed and give we and de money. Den me and Bigs exited through the front door we had come in and back cross the pasture.”

 

The inspector stated that during the following interview, Walrond said that he was not sure how much weed they had gotten but the money was “four grand and some or five grand and some” and that the money and weed were split when they returned to the house.

 

Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney and acting Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce are prosecuting in the trial, while attorney-at-law Sade Harris represents Broomes.

Justice Carlisle Greaves presides, while a jury of eight women and four men is hearing the evidence.

 

(JB)