The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A MAN denied giving his car keys to a murder suspect yesterday, as prosecutors alleged the vehicle was used in a fatal shooting on Carmichael Road in 2021.

Jawuan “Fat Boy” Armbrister was present in court as Derron Rolle gave evidence during Armbrister’s trial for murder and attempted murder before Justice Guillimina Archer-Minns.

Armbrister appeared in a wheelchair during the proceedings.

He is accused of fatally shooting Devonte Brown, who was riding a motorcycle on Carmichael Road near Meat Max sometime between September 17 and 18, 2021. Armbrister is also accused of shooting and injuring Valverde Butler, who was riding the same motorcycle.

Rolle testified that he had purchased a black 2010 Honda Fit suspected to have been used in the shooting. Although the vehicle was registered in his mother’s name, he said he had bought it himself.

Rolle claimed that around 8am on September 17, 2021, his mother drove him to work in the same vehicle. He said he wasn’t sure if she had work that day but believed she returned home afterward.

At about 6pm that evening, he said his mother picked him up from work and they returned home. Rolle emphasised that he always kept the car keys in his possession.

Later that evening, after picking up his girlfriend from work, they returned home shortly after 8pm, parking the car outside his aunt’s house. Around 9pm, he said his girlfriend wanted food, so he went to his aunt’s restaurant to get some. After returning home, he ate, watched a movie, and spent time with his girlfriend before going to bed around 11pm.

He insisted that no one visited that night and said he woke up at 5am the next morning. According to him, the car was exactly where he had left it when he departed for work at 7am.

Rolle claimed discrepancies between his testimony and his police statement were due to coercion. He alleged that officers at the Central Detective Unit (CDU) threatened him but could not recall which ones. He said he was arrested a few weeks after the incident, following a traffic stop involving his mother in the same car.

The prosecution countered that neither he nor his mother had been arrested, to which Rolle responded that he voluntarily turned himself in.

While Rolle admitted knowing Armbrister from school, he denied they were friends and asserted that Armbrister was not in a wheelchair in 2021.

He refuted the prosecution’s claim that Armbrister came to his house around 8.30pm on September 17 and borrowed the car, despite that statement appearing in the police report. Rolle said police made him say that and that he did not know how the statement got into the record.

The prosecution also noted the statement mentioned he had bought chicken and fries from the restaurant and that Armbrister returned the car keys at 5am by knocking on his window.

Rolle denied waking up at 5am to retrieve the keys, claiming he always woke at that time—two hours before work.

He said he signed the police statement just two days ago, alleging that officers threatened him at his workplace to do so.

Miranda Adderley represented the accused.

Cephia Pinder-Moss and Danielle Capron served as prosecutors.