“He attack me and I defended myself.” This is what murder accused Rhondi Dabreo told police when he was questioned over a decade ago regarding the incident in which Erkine Gunning was stabbed while at Paradise Village, Christ Church. Dabreo of Seaview, St Philip, is charged with murdering 41-year-old Gunning on March 30, 2015.
Station Sergeant Kenwyn Sumrah read the accused’s written statement into evidence as the trial continued before a 12-member jury in the No. 4 Supreme Court on Wednesday.
In the document, Dabreo outlined that he had arrived at Paradise Village to eat his lunch, where he saw Red Ants (Gunning) who asked for gas money as he had been unsatisfied with the US$10 Dabreo had given him for a ride the night before.
“He start calling me a freak and saying I should have given him $100. He then tell me I want beating and when he finish eat he would run me off the block. At this time, I walked away from him and went under the shed. I was eating my lunch and he kept shouting profanities to me and my wife. Knowing his reputation, I moved away and went on an old woman step,” the statement read.
In the account, Dabreo said that Gunning continued shouting profanities and threats and when he got up, Gunning started to approach and he moved to Ryan Layne’s yard to avoid him.
“Red Ants followed me into the yard and he was still shouting profanities at me. I was standing on the back step to the back door and he pushed through and elbow me in my neck. I ask ‘what that was for’, that I did not do him anything. He look at me and say, ‘I want killing.’ He grab me by the backdoor and we start to struggle. I then see the knife in his hand and I hold onto he hand. We start to struggle again and he hold onto my neck and the knife he had scratch me. At this time we were struggling in Ryan’s kitchen and he was choking me. Red Ants then fall on top of me in Ryan’s bedroom and he was choking me with his elbow. I was holding onto his other hand that had the knife. He got a stab to his stomach and we still was struggling for this knife. He was still on top of me and I see blood on me.
I was begging people to come and get him off me and Giggler came and pull Red Ants off me. Ryan also help and pull him off of me and he went to the kitchen. Giggler tell me ‘Dont let it go any further’. I was looking for my cell phone and I find it on the ground. When I come out into the yard, I did not see Red Ants and I heard someone saying that he gone to the hospital. I walk out of the yard and went through St Lawrence Gap and then I get a Sam Lord’s Castle bus and went home. I was afraid for my life,” the statement concluded.
Gunning’s mother Marguerite also gave evidence during the proceedings, telling the court that she was contacted on March 31, 2015 informing her that her son was in the hospital.
“I received a call from my grand-daughter stating that my son is at the hospital. The person said ‘It don’t look too good’, and then someone else said ‘Your son is dead’,” she stated, adding that she was called to the hospital two days later to identify his body.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC and Principal State Counsel Rudolph Burnett are prosecuting the matter, while Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens represents the accused.
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