The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWO men on trial for the May 2020 murders of Denny Rolle and Kim Smith took the witness stand in the Supreme Court on Wednesday and denied any involvement in the killings. One of them claimed that police beat him and put a bag over his head while he was in custody as a 15-year-old.

Trevor Reckley told the court that he did not orchestrate the killings or give a gun to his co-accused, Shamaz Brown, who was a juvenile at the time and whom the prosecution alleges was the shooter.

Brown testified that after his arrest on May 12, he was placed in a dark room at the Criminal Detective Unit (CDU), where he was slapped repeatedly, punched in the stomach and had a bag placed over his head.

Rolle and Ms Smith were shot in the head on Limewood Lane around 3pm on May 11. Ms Smith died at the scene. Rolle was taken to hospital, where he later died.

The prosecution alleges that Reckley, driving a dark-coloured Honda Accord, picked up Brown and another man, Dillon Williams, that day and told them "let's go bust a ride."

Williams, who became a prosecution witness, previously testified that Reckley picked him up first, then Brown, and drove them to Limewood Lane, where they saw Rolle in the road talking with Ms Smith, who was driving a blue Ford Focus.

Questioned by his lawyer, Ryszard Humes, Reckley said he left home around 8am on May 11 and went to the home of his cousin, Delvante Butler, at 141 Inagua Place, Hawksbill. He said that around 10am he went shopping with Butler and Butler's girlfriend, Anastacia Cooper, in Ms Cooper's green Range Rover because his own car was running hot.

Reckley said they returned to Butler's home around 1pm, and he stayed there until his mother picked him up at 5pm.

He said he did not know Williams personally but knew of him from Forbisher Circle, where Reckley lived for three years before moving to Hunters. He denied approaching Williams and asking him "to bust a ride."

"I was not at Forbisher Circle; I never saw him," Reckley said.

He said he knew Felicia Longley but that she never gave him the keys to her Honda Accord. Shown a photo of the car, he said he had never seen it before.

Reckley said he did not know Ms Smith or Rolle and did not shoot them or order their killings, as Williams had testified.

"I don't know him, I don't know why he would say those things," he said.

Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Sean Smith asked Reckley whether he belonged to a street gang known as the Nike gang, an alleged rival of the Puma gang. Reckley said he had never been involved in any gang and knew nothing about it.

Reckley said he knew Ms Longley because they lived in the same Hunters neighbourhood, and that he also knew her live-in boyfriend, Jeffrey Musgrove, because both men worked as masons.

Mr Smith suggested that Reckley knew Ms Longley's Honda Accord was for sale and that he went to her home on May 11, where she gave him the keys.

"I put it to you that you picked up Shamaz Brown and Dillon Williams, drove around drinking and smoking, and you drove to Limewood Lane. You asked Shamaz if he was ready, put a gun in his hand, and you saw Denny Rolle in the road standing next to a blue Ford Focus: you pinned him in, and Shamaz opened fire on Denny and shot him in the head, and continued firing," Mr Smith said.

"No sir," Reckley replied.

Mr Smith further suggested that after the shooting, Reckley told Brown "good job" and gave him a high five. Reckley denied it.

"You orchestrated the gruesome, horrific deaths of Kim Smith and Denny Rolle. You put the gun in the hands of a juvenile and told him to shoot," Mr Smith said.

"No sir," Reckley replied.

Butler, called as a defence witness, testified that Reckley was with him and his girlfriend from 10am on May 11. He said they went shopping, returned to his home around 3pm, and Reckley's mother picked him up at 5pm.

Brown, represented by Krystal Newman, testified that officers arrested him on May 12 at his home in Imperial Park, after his uncle answered the door.

He said he was taken to the police station and then upstairs to the CDU, where Darrell Weir asked him about the shooting. He said he told Weir he had no part in it.

Brown claimed that an Officer Smith then took him to a dark room, sat him handcuffed on a chair, and left, closing the door. He said a bag was placed over his head and kept getting tighter until he felt he was suffocating, and that he was slapped from different directions and punched in the stomach.

Brown said he was then taken out and questioned by officers, and continued to deny involvement. He said he was later left on a bench for hours until a shift change, when an Officer Russell began questioning him. Brown said he again insisted he knew nothing about the murders.

Asked by Ms Newman whether a parent or guardian was present during the questioning, Brown said no.

He claimed Russell slapped him and said: "Tell me, I don't have time to be wasting."

Brown said officers then contacted his father, and he told his father he had been beaten in custody. He said police began an interview with his father present, but his father stopped it and asked for a lawyer.

He said his father returned the next day with attorney Parko Deal, and that during the record of interview he answered "no comment" to all questions on his lawyer's advice. Brown said he and his father also told the lawyer he had been beaten.

Asked whether he knew Williams, Brown replied: "I do not know Dillon from a can of paint." He gave the same answer when asked about Rolle and Ms Smith.

Under cross-examination, Mr Smith asked Brown whether he told doctors at Rand Memorial Hospital the following day that he had been beaten. Brown said he did not, because officers who had beaten him were in the examination room.

Mr Smith told Brown that the doctor's report from his physical examination was normal and recorded no bruising or injury. Brown claimed the doctors checked his breathing, heart and blood pressure but did not look under his shirt.

Mr Smith accused Brown of lying about the beating and noted there was no record of his lawyer complaining about it at his arraignments in the Magistrate's Court and the Supreme Court. Brown admitted he had not told the magistrate or judge.

Brown conceded that he had seen Williams around at various places but said he did not know him. He said he knew Reckley from the neighbourhood and had grown up seeing him in Forbisher Circle.

Shown a photo of the dark-coloured Honda Accord, Brown said he had never been in the car and had never been to Limewood Lane. He said that on May 11 he was at home all day, playing, and that because of COVID-19 he was attending school virtually. He was 15 at the time.

Brown's father, Shervis Brown, testified that an officer contacted him after 8pm on May 12 to say his son was at the police station. When he arrived, he said, his son was handcuffed and surrounded by several officers.

He said his son told him he had been beaten, but he did not raise it with the officers. He said he noticed his son's eyes were red and one appeared bruised.

He said he sat in on a record of interview with his son but told officers to stop because he wanted to contact a lawyer, and returned with one on May 13.

Closing arguments are expected on Thursday. Justice Andrew Forbes is presiding.