A witness testified before a 12-member jury that while celebrating his birthday with his close friend, Josiah Clairmont, a group of men appeared, restrained Clairmont, and took him into a track, after which a gunshot was heard.
Taking the stand in the murder trial of Andre Clyde Cave and Richard Shamario Worrell, who are charged with Clairmont’s murder, Kevin Rayside recounted the events of February 15, 2014. He stated that he had gone to Fairfield, St Michael, and was passing a friend’s house when he saw Clairmont and another man. They told him they had been waiting for him because they knew it was his birthday and wanted to hang out.
The three men proceeded to the Silent Zone block, where they met another of Rayside’s friends and shared a drink. Rayside later went home but returned on the block later that evening, where he saw Clairmont again. They then went to visit two women.
Rayside testified that while they were sitting in front of a house, a group of men approached. They went directly to Clairmont, and began restraining and questioning him. He identified two of the men by their aliases, Raggles and Dre, and noted that there was a third man with a dark complexion whom he did not recognise. According to Rayside, these men lived in the area, and he had known them for years.
They asked both him and Clairmont, “Where the gun?”
Rayside said he pleaded for Clairmont’s life, explaining that his friend was only in the area to celebrate his birthday. However, the men remained focused on Clairmont and looking for a gun.
He recalled that Raggles was armed with a gun while Dre had a brick, which he began striking Clairmont on the knees with, continuing to ask him where the gun was as he begged for his life.
“Josiah was saying that he don’t know, and he was even looking to me asking for help while I was pleading as well, but I myself was still being cautious because a gun was involved threatening Josiah at the time,” the witness said.
He said the two women they had been visiting and their mother were trying to put themselves between Clairmont and the men restraining him but were not successful in pulling him away.
As the confrontation moved along a track, Clairmont struggled to break free. Rayside explained that the group eventually disappeared into a darkened section of the track, where he could no longer see them. He then heard a loud gunshot.
“I ran through the track, and when I get into the other gap, I look down the gap and saw my friend. I saw him running. He was close to the bottom of the gap, and I saw Raggles in the gap. He didn’t look like he was chasing after Josiah…and after that, I left, and I tried running, looking for him, but then I began to fear for my own life, so I decided to leave the area altogether. And that was the end of the night for me,” Rayside testified.
He said he did not see Clairmont with a gun at the time of the altercation.
During cross-examination, Rayside admitted that he could not see what happened in the track due to darkness and, therefore, did not witness who shot Clairmont. He also noted that Dre was speaking to him as the struggle moved away from him into the track and was still next to him when the gunshot was heard.
Also giving evidence was Renaldo Sealy, another friend of the deceased. He said he was in Bridge Gap when he received a call from Clairmont that night. Clairmont told him he had been shot, but at first, Sealy did not believe him. When he repeated it, Sealy passed the phone to the driver to determine his location. Clairmont said he was in the gap next to Zephirin’s.
Sealy said that after they drove up the gap and saw nothing, he got out to check.
“As I was coming back down the gap, I saw two fellas coming up, and they realised that Josiah was in a person’s yard and they were who alerted me to where he was and we went there and collected him, picked him up and put him in the back of the car and took him to the hospital,” he testified.
The witness described how Clairmont was in the back seat, coughing up blood, struggling to breathe, and unable to speak properly.
“He told me he had been shot in his back, and we took off his shirt and took him to the hospital,” he stated, saying that he heard the next morning that his friend had died.
Cave, 46, of Fairfield Cross Road, Tudor Bridge, and Worrell, 34, of Derriston Road, Grazettes—both in St Michael—are represented by King’s Counsels Andrew Pilgrim and Michael Lashley, respectively.
Principal State Counsel Krystal Delaney and Principal State Counsel Joyann Catwell are prosecuting the case.
The trial is presided over by Madam Justice Pamela Beckles.
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