Jurors in a murder trial on Friday repeatedly watched a 15-second video clip that shows the moment a gunman fired the shot that killed retired prison officer Harry Elliott Jr. in a botched robbery of an illegal gambling shop in George Town last year.
The video was played to jurors on Friday, the first day of the murder trial of Justin Kyle Jackson, 25, and Eric Brian Williams-Soto, 22. Each man faces a charge of murder and possession of an illegal firearm. Both men deny the charges.
Elliott, 62, died after being shot in the head at close range during the attempted hold-up of the numbers den in School Road on 25 April 2022.
The short video shows two men – one masked, one unmasked – at the door of the gambling shop. They pull open the door, and the unmasked man, carrying a firearm, disappears from view for a moment as he passes through the door. Just a second or two later, he is seen backing out the door and firing the gun. Both then flee the premises.
The video does not show the interior of the shop, where Elliott had been hit by the bullet. No CCTV cameras were present inside the room, the court heard.
Both the prosecution and defence agree that the unmasked man seen in the video was Jackson. The prosecution asserts that Williams-Soto was his masked accomplice.
Prosecution: Victim was ‘innocent bystander’
In her opening statement to the court on Friday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Candia James-Malcolm described Elliott to the jury of six women and six men as an “innocent bystander” who had borrowed a small amount of cash from a friend to gamble on the numbers that day.
The owner of the gambling shop, Keron Cupid, a former police officer, was the first witness to give evidence in the trial. He told the court that anyone entering the premises had be buzzed in by someone inside. The two men at the door had gained entry after Cupid had unlocked the door from the inside to let Elliott out.
Five people had been in the shop at the time, including himself and Elliott, he said. Cupid had been sitting at his desk, and Elliott had nodded to him, indicating he was ready to leave. He said Elliott had been folding up $12 in his hands, as Cupid released the buzzer to let him out, and that’s when the men pulled the door open.
Responding to questions from James-Malcolm, Cupid said the unmasked man carrying the gun “racked back the slide” on the weapon, as he came through the door, and announced “You know what time it is? This is a robbery,” seconds before firing the gun.
Elliott, who was immediately in front of the gunman, preparing to exit through the door, died of a gunshot wound to the head, the court heard.
‘Harmless soul’
James-Malcolm told the jurors, “Imagine, if you will, the scene – 190 School Road, a place well known to law enforcement as a den of illegal gambling. Mr. Elliott, a harmless soul, seeking a stroke of luck, ventures in that evening, having borrowed $10 from his friend to engage in a routine game of numbers.
“Little did he know, this routine outing would be his last.”
She described how, just after 8pm, “as Mr. Harry, as he was known, was leaving that establishment, two figures appeared at the door” with one wielding a weapon.
“In mere moments, the announcement of robbery turned into a tragic discharge of that firearm. And Mr. Harry, who had been on his way out at that time, fell to the floor bleeding profusely from his head. He had been shot in the head at close range.”
The prosecutor read out statements from Elliott’s wife and the friend from whom he’d borrowed the $10, which described the former prison officer as a loving, kind, religious man.
James-Malcolm told the jurors a third man, Cain Thomas, had been suspected to have been involved in the robbery as a getaway driver, but he has since died.
She told the jury that in the course of the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks, they would hear about a green Honda CRV which the trio had used to get to and from the crime scene; as well as mobile phone evidence that would show the whereabout of the defendants at key times.
She said the Crown intended to present a “vivid picture of an armed robbery gone horribly, terribly wrong”.
During her cross-examination of Cupid, defence attorney Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, KC, representing Jackson, replayed the video, frame by frame, for the witness and jurors. She pointed out that, as her client backs out of the door after very briefly entering the room, his left leg appears to bend as his foot is seen on the edge of a raised welcome mat outside the door, his right leg appears to buckle, and both his arms are raised up towards his face.
“We know that this is the moment, just about, when the gun has gone off,” Bennett-Jenkins said.
She referred Cupid to his police statement, made the day after the fatal shooting, in which he is quoted as saying, “The door was open for a couple of seconds, and he [Jackson] had a bewildered look on his face … that I would describe as ‘I didn’t really mean to do that’ type of thing.”
“Yeah, in my opinion, that’s the look that he had,” Cupid confirmed to Bennett-Jenkins.
The trial continues on Monday morning.
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