Keith Clarke’s daughter questioned about omissions in testimony

The daughter of slain businessman Keith Clarke yesterday denied a suggestion from the defence that an injured person who left blood stains in different sections of the house was present on the night her father was killed.

Clarke, a 63-year-old chartered accountant, was shot 21 times inside his master bedroom during the raid at his Kirkland Close home in Red Hills, St Andrew, by soldiers in search of then fugitive Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Coke was wanted by United States authorities for drug and gunrunning offences.

But yesterday, King’s Counsel Valerie Neita Robertson, while cross-examining Brittany Clarke, asked whether the blood stains left inside the living room and washroom were proof that someone else was inside her home with her parents on the day of the shooting.

But Brittany, in her response, emphatically said no.

Earlier in the cross-examination, the attorney questioned Brittany about omissions in her statement while suggesting that she had motive for testifying about new information that she had not recorded in her statement.

Not important at the time

Brittany, who gave the lawyer a hard time in answering the questions, was asked why she had not put in her original statement that she had seen her father walking past her bedroom when he arrived home on May 26.

In reply, she said she had no reason and that it was not important at the time.

But Neita Robertson told her, “I am suggesting to you that you told us that because you want to establish that you knew when your father came home and that he came home with nobody.”

However, Brittany disagreed.

She was also asked why she left out of her statement that she had also studied on the night after she came home.

But Brittany, before stating that she had no reason, said there were other things that she did that she did not include in her statement, and further, that she highlighted that she took a bubble bath because it was something that she had not done in a while.

But when questioned about how long the bath lasted, she said she could not recall.

“ I can’t give you a time. I am sorry. I can’t help you with that,” she said.

“Or Ms Clarke, did you make up all the things you are saying?” Neita Robertson asked Brittany, who denied fabricating her evidence.

Brittany, who had put in her statement that she arrived home at 8 p.m. and went to bed an hour later, also could not recall what she was studying that night or the four exams for which she was preparing. She also could not remember for how long she studied, noting that she did not put a time on it.

She will continue to be cross-examined when the trial resumes today.

Three soldiers – lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley as well as Private Arnold Henry – are currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court before Justice Dale Palmer.

The defence is contending that Coke and a group of men had been hiding in the basement and had used Clarke’s backyard as an escape route.

The defence also claims that Keith Clarke had pointed his gun at the soldiers and that gunshots were fired from inside the house, which caused damage to two vehicles that were parked at the Clarkes’ residence.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com