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A former government forensic analyst testified Monday that Keith Clark was shot inside a master bedroom closet, contradicting testimony from his widow and daughter who said Clark was shot as he climbed down from atop the closet.
The 63-year-old businessman was shot 21 times at his home in Kirkland Close, St Andrew, on March 27, 2010, during a joint military and police operation to capture then-fugitive drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.
Corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley and Private Arnold Henry, who are accused of his murder, are currently on trial in Circuit Court before Judge Dale Palmer.
Clark’s widow and daughter previously testified that they saw Clark being shot as he climbed down from the closet with his back to the soldiers. Clark’s daughter Brittany insisted that Clark was shot through the window as he climbed down.
But the former forensic analyst, questioned by prosecutor Dwayne Green about where Clark might have been when he was shot, based on bloodstains captured in photos she viewed, said Clark was wounded on the left side of the closet.
When Green asked if she meant where the window was, the witness responded, “No, sir, in the closet. In the open part.”
She further revealed that it was supposed to be “a little bit inside the closet” and judging by the blood stains, Clark was about eight inches from the wall.
The closet ran the entire length of the east wall of the master bedroom and had two open sections visible in the photos, one of which witnesses identified as the area where Clark was injured.
Witnesses also testified that it did not appear that Clark was shot in front of the widow.
However, she reiterated that based on the blood splatter evidence, Clark could have been shot in an upright position, based on the height of the blood.
Witnesses testified last Thursday that he also could have been shot while lying on the floor, or wounded in the lower part of his body while in an upright position.
Meanwhile, the witness further revealed that one of the two DNA swabs taken from the Red Stripe bottles in the first-floor bedroom was from a male.
She explained that the test kit has markers on it that indicate the gender of the DNA.
According to witnesses, swabs were collected from bottles taken from the garden, the staircase leading to the first floor, a bedroom on the first floor and from a shelf in a bedroom.
However, she said only swab results from two bottles on a bedroom shelf showed the virus originated from a man.
Witnesses will be cross-examined when the trial resumes on Monday. The trial was delayed because of the threat of Hurricane Beryl and two jurors said they would be unable to attend on Tuesday.
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