Emotion overwhelmed defendant Ijaz Enies Dalmage, 26, as he gave his evidence to a seven-member jury during a Grand Court trial for an alleged gun crime this week.
The carpenter is accused of pulling a fake pistol from the waistband of his shorts and making death threats to 50-year-old mason Byran Curtis Smith in George Town.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence.
After the prosecution finished presenting witnesses on Wednesday afternoon, 26 July, defence attorney Jonathon Hughes called on the defendant to take the stand.
Dalmage broke down in tears as he recounted the events that led up to the alleged incident near Reflections Liquor 4 Less on Eastern Avenue mid-afternoon on 22 April this year.
He described an altercation at a West Bay construction site where he had worked with Smith in 2022.
The defendant said he got into a disagreement with the sole female worker at the site and she pushed him off the scaffolding. A tool he was holding struck her in the face as he fell.
Dalmage told the court Smith and two other men – who he called Blacks, Rasta and Mason – attacked him while he was on the ground, thinking he had intentionally hurt the woman.
Police were called, the defendant said, adding that Smith told them: “The boy chopped the girl – we must send him to prison,” however no charges were subsequently laid.
Dalmage had several injuries on his back and side which he said were from his fall and the attack and went to hospital that day for treatment.
Hammer in waistband
Hughes then asked the defendant to describe in detail what happened on 22 April.
Dalmage said he had taken his car to a garage to be sprayed the day before and that day went back to take some work tools from his car including a hammer and measuring tape.
He was riding a borrowed bicycle and wearing shorts with shallow pockets, he said, so he tucked the hammer into the waistband of his shorts to keep it from falling to the floor.
A work friend then called him to invite him to “check him”, so he arrived at the liquor store and they bought some beers and drank them in the parking lot.
Hughes showed CCTV footage of the carpark, which showed the defendant and his friends drinking and talking. He then collected his bike and rode it away from the camera’s view.
That was when he saw Smith, Dalmage said. He told the court that he did not hit Smith twice on the chest as the witness had accused, and he remained several feet away.
Smith said something to him that he could not hear, he said, and he responded: “You see how problem come easy now.”
Smith then shouted, “The boy have a gun”, he told the jury, and people scattered from the parking lot, but Dalmage held up his hands saying he had no gun, and they slowly returned.
The defendant said he was scared that someone would shoot and kill him for carrying a weapon, so he quickly cycled off from the area to a hair appointment he had booked.
Dalmage told the court he never had anything to do with guns, never had possession of a gun or imitation gun, or spent time with people with guns.
He thought that Smith had seen the hammer in his waistband and accused him of having a gun to pay him back for what he thought was an attack on a female on the job site.
In his cross-examination prosecutor Orrett Brown suggested to Dalmage that the alleged threats were his way of seeking revenge for Smith attacking him at work, which he denied.
On Thursday, 27 July, Justice Cheryll Richards began summing up the case to the jury. She is expected to finish on Friday when the jury will begin their deliberations.
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