Keon Shawn Devon Roachford told the No. 3 Supreme Court that when he said he knew nothing about the three guns they allegedly found in his residence, officers cuffed him about the head, slapped him in the face, and threatened him.
He gave the testimony from the witness stand as the trial against him continued on Friday before a nine-member jury.
Roachford, 35, Chelston Road, St Michael, has denied having two Springfield Armoury model XDS 9mm Luger calibre semi-automatic pistols and a Glock model 23 Gen 4 .40 S&W semi-automatic pistol, without valid licences, and 47 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit, on July 12, 2023.
The accused recounted that on that morning, he was in bed sleeping and was awoken by his girlfriend, and banging on the windows and doors of the house.
Getting up, he looked out the bedroom door at the monitor on top of the fridge, which showed footage from several cameras in and around the residence, including the kitchen, dining room, patio, and exterior of the house.
He saw a number of figures around the house and recognised the ‘police’ stencilling on their clothes.
He said: “I observed at the time a police officer forcibly prising open the windows to the side door, and then he start trying to brek off the doorknob. I turned to my girlfriend and said: ‘Babes go and open the door before them brek off the people door’ and she did.”
According to him, he went to call his attorney, but could not find his cell phone, and when he stepped into the corridor, one constable grabbed his throat and another his arm and shoved him back into the bedroom, up against the door as three other officers walked passed and headed further into the house.
He testified that he saw no warrant that morning, neither was one read to him, adding that it had been handed to his girlfriend when she let the lawmen in.
In his account, the accused stated that as the bedroom was being searched, he tried looking to see what was going on outside of the room, and one of the officers tapped his chest repeatedly saying: “Keep ya eyes hey.”
“I told him: ‘This is bare foolishness. Dey ain’t got nutten in this house and nobody down in the back with dem with them searching or doing whatever dem doing down there. Dem want to plant something in hey.’ That same time, a big, dark officer came into the bedroom and struck me about me about three or four times in de stomach and leff.
“As I stood at the bedroom door braced up, I heard as if somebody was beating up something in the kitchen area, like something was being brek up or dismantled. Approximately two or three minutes after. I heard someone shout: ‘Bring he hey.’ I was then hustled from the bedroom area directly into the kitchen.”
Roachford stated that a policeman immediately placed handcuffs on him at the kitchen’s entrance, and he was being held by two officers.
He continued: “I had no intentions to run, I did not run and I could not run because I was already restrained and subdued by these police officers. On that morning, I had no interactions with Ms Thomas. I did not run into the area of the patio. Also, the cameras from the dining room area would have proven that I had not run from this area, and the cameras from the patio would have shown that I did not run into this area and pursue with no struggle with no officers that morning.”
He testified that while at the kitchen entrance, he saw the base of the pantry cupboard was dismantled, the faceboard removed, and a hammer beside it.
“I also observed three firearms, laid out neatly on the kitchen mat, with a bag alongside them. In the presence of these three officers, I said: ‘ I don’t know nuffen bout dem.’l
He said that an officer then cuffed him in his belly, and when he fell to the ground, the other two began kicking him in the ribs and abdomen, and cuffing him in the head, threatening to charge both him and his girlfriend unless he admitted to the firearms.
Roachford denied that either he or his girlfriend knew about the guns and told the officers that they had never seen the area at the bottom of the cupboard.
State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce is prosecuting the case, while attorney Safiya Moore represents the accused.
The presiding judge, Justice Carlisle Greaves, will deliver his summation on Tuesday.
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