Murder Accused: “I Shouldn’t Have Come Back”
Yesterday [Mar.18] the Court heard that a man accused of murdering a rival gang member was arrested after arriving in Bermuda from a Miami flight, and told the arresting officer, “I knew I should not have come back. I knew you guys were looking for me.”
30-year-old Kumi Harford [pictured] was killed at around 5am on St. Monica’s Road on December 5th, 2009. Antonio Myers, 25, of Rambling Lane, Pembroke was charged with the murder in May, 2010, charges which he denies.
During the trial, A Police officer previously identified the defendant Antonio Myers as a high-ranking member of the Middletown gang, and the victim to be a high ranking member of the 42nd gang.
Mr Andrew Lawes, a witness for the Crown, completed his testimony yesterday morning. On the stand and under cross-examination QC Lynch, Mr Lawes assertion that he had been talking with ‘Juggler’ and the accused, Antonio Myers, at 7:00am on the morning of 5th December 2009 was challenged by the QC.
The QC suggested that Mr Lawes was lying about the time that this conversation had taken place. To the QC’s strong assertion, Mr Lawes replied: “No. Not a lie.”
The defence attorney suggested that at that hour of the morning and because of the fire that had taken place there, and a subsequent police investigation of that fire, the area would have been swarming with Police.
QC Lynch suggested that Mr Lawes was giving false evidence after he had had conversations with other witnesses and because he wanted to have a piece of the $100,000.
Mr Lawes objected strenuously and said that both suggestions were untrue.
During a short re-examination by the Crown, Mr Lawes declared that he was a dog-trainer and a dog lover who had shown dogs at schools, and that this love of dogs may have earned him a reputation as a ‘snitch’.
On the witness stand he recounted a tale of seeing a young person in the Middletown area who had a brown puppy with white toes. Mr Lawes said that later on he met a man in the Deepdale area who said that he had lost a brown puppy with white toes. Mr Lawes said that he told the man about the puppy that he had seen and that the man subsequently took the dog from the young person. Mr Lawes said that the young man had later accosted Mr Lawes and had used a Lucozade bottle to strike Mr Lawes, causing Mr Lawes to have a broken jaw.
Mr Lawes stepped down and gave way to the next witness.
Next up was Crown witness DC Shannon Swan who gave evidence of arresting Mr Myers off the inbound Miami flight on 10th January 2010. DC Swan said that on arrest, Mr Myers had said: “I knew I should not have come back. I knew you guys were looking for me.”
After DC Swan, the Crown called PC Terry Trott who is a member of the Firearms Unit and who said that he is regularly armed when on duty.
PC Trott gave evidence that around 5:00am on 5th December 2009, at the end of his shift, he and Police Sergeant Ming were at the Shell service station in Paget when they received notice of a shooting. PC Trott said that he and Sgt Ming returned to Prospect, collected their assigned weapons, picked up PC Smalling, and went back on patrol.
Knowing that two other Firearms Units were already at the reported shooting incident, his team went into the Middletown area. Patrolling in this area he smelled smoke and saw a fire burning next to the residence at #9 Middletown Lane.
PC Trott said that the team dismounted and he attacked the fire with the fire extinguisher that every Police car carries. The other two members of the team carried out their standard procedures with one man staying with the car. PC Trott said that at no time did he see anyone.
PC Trott said that he initially secured the area, called backup, and that later a Forensic Unit arrived, photographed and searched the area of the fire, and then took away materials from the fire.
Cross examined by QC Lynch, PC Trott said that the decision to patrol the Middletown area was a result of good tactical thinking and the discovery of the fire resulted from good police work. PC Trott fixed the time of discovery of the fire at 5:20am on 5th December 2009.
Cross-examined about the possibility that Gun Shot Residue [GSR] from his weapon and clothing might contaminate evidence, PC Trott said that all Police training that involved the firing of their weapons was done whilst wearing fatigue overalls.
PC Trott said that his work uniforms were kept at home while his training coveralls were kept at the Police Armoury. He also said that his weapon was always cleaned after firing and that all such cleaning was done inside the armoury at Police HQ at Prospect.
The last witness in the stand was Police Sergeant Kevin Christopher, a veteran of thirty years service with the Bermuda Police. P/Sgt Christopher said that on 10 June 2010, he had been approached by Mr Andrew Lawes who said that he knew something about the Kumi Harford killing. Later, he was approached by Mr Darrell who also said that he had information about the December Harford killing.
Sgt Christopher said that he had later been a part of the team that had helped arrange for Mr Lawes and Mr Darrell to be sent to another jurisdiction.
Cross examined, Sgt Christopher said that he had attended Victor Scott primary school, knew many people in the area, and was known by many people in the area. Asked if people talked to him, knowing that he was a policeman; Sgt Christopher said that people did talk to him and did offer information. Asked by QC Lynch if this was because he was trusted, Sgt Christopher agreed that this happened.
The day ended. With warnings not to discuss, the Jury was dismissed until Monday morning.
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My question is why they keeping calling him a high ranking member of a gang from what i have seen in movies and heard from people people that are high up in gangs don’t carry out murders and what not aint that what new members are for.?
Exactly!!! Why do they to keep calling our boys ‘High Ranking Gang Members’ when these are young boys who have been caught up in the corruption of the system, who see no way out but to turn to violence. By speaking over them as to be ‘gang members’ they will and are believing just that! We need to start speaking positive over our youth and stop labeling them as such! We need to get back to prayer and praying over our children because that’s all that’s going to save our Island and children now! I remember when we were considered a ‘Crew’ from an area, since when did it become for example ’42nd Gang’ and not ’42nd Crew’…..let alone gang members???
SIGN OF THE TIMES, Stop making excuses for these dam idiots,Yes I’m calling them idiots,they know exactly what they are doing, They need more then prayer they all need counseling,and a good cut ass from there grandparents,then sent back to shcool to get the freaking education. I hope that guy Meyer’s see Kumi face and hears his voice so loud everytime he goes to rest his head down to sleep.Face it there are gangs in Bermuda.You either want the police to clean up Bermuda or you want to keep on finding excusses for your little dumb momas boys.
I find that most dumb people were most likely raised by dumb people. That’s the problem with babies having babies. I have actually seen a young father out with his child in a stroller behind a boarded up house smoking weed and drinking in front of his child. The child then grows up thinking this is alright to do and the viscious circle continues. There is a park where I used to live and the last time I was there I saw young teenagers bringing their kids into the park and they were cursing, smoking and drinking in front of their kids. Do you think that their parents will raise them to be productive citizens? These so called gangsters are more likely to come from broken or dysfunctional homes. They don’t have anyone to guide them in the right direction. I kept my daughter in her books and out of the streets to her dismay but it paid off. She’s working and paying for college herself at the age of 19. Pay attention to your kids and knock some sense into them when you have to.