Keith Clarke trial stalled to allow prosecution, defence to discuss photographs

The murder trial of the three Jamaica Defence Force soldiers implicated in the shooting death of Keith Clarke was yesterday postponed until next Monday in the Home Circuit Court.

The matter was postponed to give both the prosecution and the defence time to complete their agreement concerning photographic evidence.

Clarke’s widow, Dr Claudette Clarke, has been testifying since Tuesday but the matter was adjourned as she was unable to proceed further until the agreement on the photographs is finalised.

The three soldiers – Corporal Odel Buckley, Lance Corporal Greg Tinglin and Private Arnold Henry – who were charged with murder in connection with Clarke’s death, are currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court before Justice Dale Palmer.

The 63-year-old chartered accountant was shot 21 times during a military raid at his home on May 26, 2010.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Clarke’s widow testified that her husband was prepared to defend his family from “criminals” who they believed had invaded their premises on the night he was shot and killed in their bedroom.

The retired education officer had testified on Tuesday that her husband was shot while climbing down backwards from the closet top in their bedroom.

Dr Clarke testified that her husband was shot in front of her and their daughter, who was 16 at the time, by three men who had cut off the lock to their bedroom and had barged in and opened fire at her husband after asking, “Wey him deh”.

Continuing her testimony on Wednesday, Dr Clarke said her husband, before climbing up into the closet, had told her “I am not going to allow criminals to come inside the house and kill us off”.

But she had testified the day before that her husband did not have anything in his hand and was not doing or saying anything when he was shot.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dr Clarke, responding to whether she knew her husband’s purpose for climbing on top of the closet, had said, “So that he could look over our protection”.

However, defence lawyer Valerie Neita Robertson, King’s Counsel, objected to the question, noting that it was not admissible unless Clarke had done or said something as his wife could not read his mind.

As a result, the prosecutor asked whether the couple had any discussion before the chartered account proceeded up into the closet and Dr Clarke restated what was said.

Dr Clarke on Tuesday, in sharing details of what had transpired on the night her husband was murdered, said they were home when she heard banging on her doors and roof, and her locks being cut off, after seeing a helicopter or plane flying over the area with a bright light.

She said after she and her family were unsuccessful in finding the key to their basement, they all went into the bedroom where she and her daughter went into the bathroom on her husband’s instruction while he went on top of the closet.

However, she said when she heard her bedroom lock being cut off she came out with her daughter and identified herself but, before she could finish talking, her husband was shot.

Continuing on Wednesday, she recalled her daughter screaming and being restrained by her when her father was shot.

According to Dr Clarke, she could not look at her husband’s body and, as a result, could not say what position he was in when he fell to the floor.

During the same time, she said soldiers were coming in and out of her room and she could hear shots being fired in other parts of her home but she could not recall the number.

The trial also heard that the witness and her daughter were instructed to lay face down on the floor with weapons with lights at the end pointed at them.

Dr Clarke said while they were in that position a man in plain clothes entered the room and identified himself as a policeman.

She also recalled seeing the soldier picking up small objects from the ground and placing them in their helmet or headgear.

But, she said, she could not say with certainty what the objects were.

Dr Clarke also testified that, on the day her husband was killed, no one was apprehended at her home, nor was anyone else found in her home.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com