Expert witness supports claim Keith Clarke killed while climbing down from closet
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2024 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The island’s former chief forensic pathologist has supported the account given by relatives of businessmen Keith Clarke that he was shot and killed while climbing down from the closet with his back toward security forces personnel who had entered his home.
Dr Dinesh Rao also testified yesterday that Clarke’s death was as a result of traumatic shock caused by extensive laceration of his lungs, heart, intestines and kidney, resulting from multiple gunshots to his back.
Asked by prosecutor Latoya Bernard to explain ‘laceration’, Rao said, “Because of the multiple gunshots, organs inside of his chest cavity, lungs, heart, intestines, were destroyed. They were extensively damaged. They were split open because of the bullets traversing through and because of shockwave and splinters associated with these bullets.”
The expert witness had earlier testified that 25 external wounds were observed on Clarke’s body during the post mortem, and that 20 were fatal. Additionally, he said 16 of the gunshots were to Clarke’s lower back and that other injuries included gunshot wounds to his face and chest, as well as forearm.
Clarke’s widow, Dr Claudette Clarke, and his daughter, Brittany, previously testified that they had witnessed Clarke being shot while climbing down from the closet with his back turned to the soldiers.
The 64 year-old accountant was shot multiple times inside his master bedroom at his Kirkland Close home in St Andrew on May 27, during a police-military operation to apprehend then-fugitive drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
Defendants lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley and Private Arnold Henry are being tried for murder before Justice Dale Palmer.
Yesterday during the continuation of his evidence in the Home Circuit Court, Rao, the former chief forensic pathologist in the Legal Medicine Unit at the Ministry of National Security, corroborated the relatives’ evidence while giving his opinion on three propositions put forward by the Independent Commission of Investigations.
The witness said he was asked to give his expert opinion on whether Clarke was shot while lying on top of the closet with his gun pointed at one of the shooters; after falling to the ground and while reaching for his gun; or while coming down from the closet with his back turned towards the shooters.
When asked by the prosecutor what his opinion was, he accepted the proposition that Clarke was shot while climbing down from the closet, noting that it was corroborated by the crime scene and the external and internal injuries sustained by the deceased.
The witness was also asked to opine on the position of the shooter.
In answering, he said, “I am of the opinion that [the] majority of the gunshots have entered the left side of the back region, indicating the position of the deceased; left side, back of the body facing the shooter or he has turned himself away from the shooter exposing his left side or, during the manoeuvring at the moment of [the] shooting, [he] exposed the left surface of his back towards the shooters.”
He added that Clarke, “in all possibility”, was either bending or crouching himself opposite the shooter position while moving the right half of his body forward.
The court heard further that, based on a few of the injuries which were seen on Clarke’s body, it is possible that he was also shot after or during the process of falling to the floor.
In the meantime, before the witness shared his opinion, the defence objected to Rao giving his opinion on the proposition.
King’s Counsel (KC) Peter Champagnie argued that it could be considered hearsay while his colleague, KC Valerie Neita Robertson, and attorney-at-law Linton Gordon questioned the origin of the proposition and its evidential basis.
The judge, however, ruled that the witness’s opinion was permissible and that what was presented was sufficient for him to provide his expert opinion.
The witness’ testimony has, however, been suspended until next week Thursday, but the trial will continue today with the defence and prosecution making legal arguments in relation to an issue with the next witness.