Soldiers to know if they have a case to answer today

The three Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers charged in connection with the May 2010 shooting death of businessman Keith Clarke are to know this morning whether they have a case to answer.

Lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley, along with Private Arnold Henry, are currently standing trial for murder before Justice Dale Palmer in the Home Circuit Court.

On Monday, the defence lawyers presented their no-case submissions in the absence of the jury, with the prosecution offering its responses.

Justice Palmer had initially planned to deliver his ruling on the matter yesterday morning but indicated that he required additional time, postponing the decision to today.

Clarke, a 64-year-old accountant, was shot multiple times inside the master bedroom of his Kirkland Close home on May 27, 2010, during a police-military operation to apprehend then fugitive drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Dr Dinesh Rao, the former chief forensic pathologist in the Legal Medicine Unit at the Ministry of National Security, testified during the trial that Clarke sustained 25 gunshot wounds. He noted that 16 of these shots were to Clarke’s lower back, while the other injuries included gunshot wounds to his face, chest, and forearm. The forensic pathologist explained that Clarke died from traumatic shock caused by extensive damage to his lungs, heart, intestines, and kidneys, resulting from multiple gunshots to his back.

Rao also supported the account given by Clarke’s relatives that he was shot while climbing down from a closet with his back towards security forces personnel who had entered his home.

Clarke’s widow and daughter had also insisted that they were home alone with the businessman when they heard strange sounds and thought criminals were breaking into the house.

CONTRADICTION

However, testimony from a former government forensic analyst contradicted the family’s account. The analyst stated that Clarke was likely shot while inside the closet in the master bedroom, rather than while descending from it. She also refuted the idea that Clarke was shot at the window – as claimed by his daughter – as she found no blood spatter on the window or surrounding walls. She also could not recall seeing a curtain and whether it had blood marks but was certain that there were no bloodstains or spatter on the window.

The court was told that it was likely that Clarke was shot while positioned at the left side of the closet based on the blood spatter captured in a photograph she was shown.

Among the other evidence was testimony from Brigadier Mahatma Williams, who commanded the JDF unit involved in the incident, testified that an aerial video captured during the operation showed the soldiers acting in what he believed to be “good faith”.

Williams explained that the video depicted the soldiers coming under attack from insurgents inside the Clarke residence and that they followed standard military procedures.

He also stated that the JDF had relied on intelligence leading them to the premises, and that the team came under fire while approaching Kirkland Close.

Captain Kevin White, second-in-command at the Special Activities Regiment, also testified that the firearm and ammunition logbooks for May 2010 could not be found. However, White disclosed that he was able to locate dispatch books from earlier and later periods, ranging from early 2004 to early 2010 and from 2016 to 2020.

Meanwhile, Terrence Williams, former commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations, told the court that he requested the books from December 2010, and that up to the time, when he was leaving office in 2020, the request was still not fulfilled.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com