A 12-member jury has convicted Dario Orlando Taitt of murdering Jamal Clarke three years ago, returning a guilty verdict by a majority of 10 to two.
Taitt, known as Red Dog, of Silver Sands, Christ Church, had denied murdering Clarke on May 2, 2023.
Defence counsel Martie Garnes represented Taitt, while acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney, acting Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce and State Counsel Kwame Ramsay prosecuted the case.
Justice Carlisle Greaves, who presided over the trial, ordered a pre-sentence report and a record of Taitt’s time spent on remand, and set sentencing for February 5, 2027.
During the trial, the court heard evidence from several witnesses, including the deceased’s twin brother, Jamar, who said that, as he drove his brother to hospital that morning, Jamal repeatedly identified Red Dog as the person who had shot him.
Jamar said they had gone to Oistins that morning for ice. Later, while he was at the supermarket, someone informed him that his brother was ‘cross de road’ asking for help.
“When I got there, he was on the ground by the roadside, on his back, using his hands to push forward to get to me. A route taxi came and stopped, and two persons help me put Jamal in the back of my car, and I drove off. While I was driving, I ask ‘Who shot you?’ He said: Red Dog.”
Jamar said he drove home and asked his girlfriend to accompany them, adding: “While driving, I ask two more times, who shot you? All two times he said, Red Dog.”
In his unsworn statement from the dock, Taitt told the court that someone had brought a phone to his tattoo shop and asked him to unlock it, but he had said he could not because he was not a technician.
Later that day, the deceased came to the shop and asked him for the phone, but Taitt told him he did not have it. Taitt said Clarke pulled down the television and left, but returned later and damaged a window net, prompting a frightened female customer to run from the shop.
Taitt said that the next day on May 2, 2023, he left home early and went to Six Roads to do a tattoo. While there, he heard that his name had been mentioned in connection with Clarke’s shooting death.
He said: “I don’t have no convictions or pending charges. This is the first charge that I ever get in my whole life because I ain’t that sort of man. I know we as Bajans tend to have a certain stigma when it comes to tattoos, especially tattoos on your face. I is a tattoo artist, and that is how we express ourselves, through art. I may have tattoos in my face, drink a lot of alcohol, smoke some weed, deal with more than one woman at the same time, but what I never do is shoot nor kill nobody.”
(JB)
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