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Witness: Blackman requested photos as confirmation of hits

Published:Tuesday | November 9, 2021 | 12:12 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter

A former member of the One Don Gang yesterday revealed that reputed leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan not only gave orders for persons to be killed, but also requested pictures of their bodies as confirmation of their demise.

“Blackman like when you contact him say the person is dead, and if you get a chance, take a photo of the person and send it to him. That’s the type of person he is,” the prosecution’s second star witness shared yesterday in the Home Circuit Court, where Blackman and 32 other alleged gang members are on trial.

The ex-gangster made the assertion while responding to questions from Bryan’s lead attorney Lloyd McFarlane, as to why he had been present at the murder scene of a man, referred to only as ‘Outlaw’, who he testified he had begged the reputed leader not to kill.

“You didn’t want to go, so why you go on the scene to look at the man bleeding out?” McFarlane asked.

The witness said that Blackman had instructed him to report back on whether the man had been killed.

“I was just working off instruction; it’s either me or him,” he said, noting that if he did not carry out the order, he, too, would have been killed.

But the witness was taken to task by the lawyer, who asked why he had not put in his statement that he had driven past the scene and had wound down his window and looked at the man bleeding out on the scene like he had told the court.

“I am being more detailed now in what I am telling the court,” the witness replied.

The lawyer then asked why he did not tell the police what he told the court, to which he blurted out, “It’s not what you tell the police that matter. It’s what you tell the court.”

When pressed by McFarlane as to whether he was saying that what he told the police in his statement was not important, the witness quickly retracted his the remark, saying that what he told the police was important, but that now that he was before the judge, he was being more detailed.

“Detail or a different lie?” McFarlane asked.

“More details. No lies,” the witness said.

The witness previously testified that when he went to meet Blackman before the murder, the first thing the accused said was that he was going to kill Outlaw.

Begged for Outlaw’s life

The witness told the court that he had asked Bryan to spare Outlaw as he was not a troublemaker, but Bryan allegedly shot down his request, stating that the man who had given him the information he was acting on had never been wrong.

But during cross-examination yesterday, the witness admitted that he had not told the police in his statement that he had begged for Outlaw’s life or that Bryan had greeted him with those comments.

Those inconsistencies were among many pointed out by McFarlane during his cross-examination.

But the witness, who insisted that he was being truthful, said that he is human and makes mistakes and that he could not recall everything that he had said in his statement.

Furthermore, he said that when he was giving the statement, he was dealing with stress, but he has since gone through a lot in trying to keep himself safe.

According to him, he has also been traumatised.

Meanwhile, at the end of McFarlane’s cross-examination, defence attorney Shannon Clarke asked the judge, on behalf of the other lawyers, to adjourn the trial until Thursday, so that they could properly prepare for their turn at cross-examining this second witness, given the voluminosity of the evidence.

The judge consented. Hence, the second witness will return on Thursday to continue his cross-examination.

However, Witness One is to return tomorrow to complete his cross-examination.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com