A witness has described seeing his cousin dropped off at a West Bay home with a gunshot wound to the leg just minutes after a “numbers man” had been killed in a botched robbery across town.
Aaron Hydes told the Grand Court on Wednesday that he was walking toward the home of his cousin Jordan Manderson, whom he referred to as “Pinga,” when a car pulled up in the street outside.
He said two men got out of the vehicle and tried to help his cousin, who hopped out of the back seat and appeared to be in considerable pain.
Mr. Hydes was testifying on day two of the murder trial of Raziel Jeffers, who is accused of orchestrating and aiding and abetting the robbery that prosecutors say led to the death of Marcos Duran.
The witness did not identify any of the men in the vehicle as Jeffers. Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryll Richards said in her opening remarks on Tuesday that Jeffers may not have pulled the trigger or even been present when Mr. Duran was shot outside a home in West Bay on March 11, 2010.
But she said the Crown would prove he was “culpable in law” for the murder because he masterminded and aided the robbery of numbers-man Mr. Duran, providing the guns that were used to shoot him, as he made cash pickups for the underground lottery game.
Taking the stand on Wednesday, Mr. Hydes said he had been turning into the street where his cousin lived in West Bay at around 7:45 p.m. when he saw the White Honda Accord pull up in the center of the road.
“I saw the backseat passenger hop out of the car in a rush. He was hopping on one leg, I thought he was drunk.”
He said he identified the injured man as his cousin when he moved under a streetlight.
“It looked like his leg was broken. His shin bone was sticking out and he was bleeding.”
Earlier the court heard that the body of Mr. Duran, who had suffered three gunshot wounds, was discovered outside an apartment on Maliwinas Way in West Bay following a 911 call at 7:24 p.m. on the same evening – March 11.
The jury was also read a statement from a hairdresser, Samantha Grant. She told police she had been doing the hair of a client, Megan Martinez, on the same evening, when Ms. Martinez had received a call from her boyfriend. She said in the statement that she had driven with Ms. Martinez, at her request, to collect a man, whom she knew to be Jeffers, from an area of West Bay and dropped him off in the Birch Tree Hill area.
Mr. Jeffers denies the charges. The trial continues.
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