One day after pleading guilty to manslaughter, Romario Renaldo Broomes told a jury he fired four shots as Richan Walrond struggled with Andre Hinds, before later hearing additional gunfire after he left the scene.
Broomes, of Checker Hall, St Lucy, and Walrond, of Back Ivy, St Michael, had both been on trial charged with murdering Hinds, of Northumberland, St Lucy, on August 25, 2016.
When Broomes was rearraigned in the No. 3 Supreme Court on Thursday, he admitted to unlawfully killing Hinds. The jury was instructed to return a formal verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
During his testimony on Friday, Broomes told the court that he was at a man’s house with Walrond, who was also known as ‘Blacks’, and four other men, before later being joined by the homeowner and his girlfriend.
He said Walrond asked him for directions to ‘Neckie’s’ (Hinds’) home, saying he needed money to pay back for a car.
“A woman come with a Ford Focus and I direct the woman to Neckie house. I was wearing a ski mask, black jacket, black long pants and a pair of black slippers,” he said, later adding that Walrond was similarly dressed.
Broomes and Walrond got out of the car in Connell Town and went through a track leading towards Hinds’ home, he said, admitting that he was carrying a nickel-plated .38 revolver.
He only realised Walrond was also carrying a gun when they got to the house, he said.
Broomes said: “When we get by the house, Blacks pull the door from underneath a couple times and the bottom half came off. Blacks enter the house and tell me to stay outside and watch to see who coming. I could hear noise like rustling like someone fighting. I hear Blacks holler for help. I enter the house and see Andre and Blacks in a wrestle. They were standing. Within two minutes time, I heard a loud explosion so I tell myself ‘Andre have a gun’ so I point my gun in the direction of Andre and Blacks and I fire four shots. After that Blacks and Andre was still wrestling and Blacks tell me he had everything under control and tell me go back outside and watch outside.”
After returning outside, Broomes heard “three or four” shots while Hinds and Walrond were inside the house, he testified.
“A couple of minutes after Blacks came out and tell me ‘come long’ to go back down the road,” he stated, adding that they walked past a farm and chicken pen before being picked up in a white L200 and returning to the house where they had been earlier.
“Blacks give me two grand and two ounces and a half of weed,” he said, adding that these had been taken from Hinds’ house. He said the other men received weed but he was unsure if they were given money.
He heard a woman screaming in the house that evening but did not see her, he said, adding that he only learnt the next day that Hinds had died and that he burnt the clothes he had worn.
When initially questioned by police, he denied knowing what had happened because he did not want to get “lock up”, he said. But on September 3, 2016, after being arrested, he confessed, told officers who had been involved and took them to where he had stashed the gun and burnt the clothing.
He told the court that he bought a shirt and foodstuff and “pay who I owe” with the money he received.
Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney and Acting Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce are prosecuting, while defence counsel Safiya Moore and Michael Rivera represent Walrond. Attorney-at-law Sade Harris represents Broomes.
A jury of eight women and four men is hearing the evidence before Justice Carlisle Greaves.
(JB)
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