Prosecution urges jury to rubbish defence arguments in Ruddock trial

Lead prosecutor Latoya Bernard on Thursday delivered her closing statements in the Andre Ruddock murder trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston, appealing to the seven members of the jury to rubbish the arguments put forward by the accused and his attorneys, especially the claim that he did not kill 39-year-old Taneka Gardner.   Ruddock is on trial for murder in relation to the October 17, 2021 killing of Gardner at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in St James.   Both Ruddock and Gardner were members of the church.   It is alleged that Ruddock, acting on instructions from his now deceased pastor Kevin Smith, used a knife to slash Gardner’s throat as part of what is believed be a human sacrifice ritual.   However, even though the main witness in the case insisted during the trial that Ruddock was the one who killed Gardner by cutting her throat at the church on orders from Smith, the accused, while giving sworn testimony from the witness box, said that it was the pastor who cut the woman’s throat and not him.   According to the prosecutor on Thursday, that argument, among others given by the defence team, was purely rubbish and that the roughly 10 witnesses had no reason to blame Ruddock for the killing. One of the things that Bernard warned the jurors against was not to fall for the lawyer’s numerous mentions throughout the case of guns being fired at the scene and that the main witness admitted that he came in contact with an illegal firearm during the bizarre happenings at the church.

The witness had testified that he went to his bus to retrieve an illegal firearm that was given to him by another member of the church many hours before.

Full coverageAndre Ruddock’s Murder Trial Hears Evidence From Pathways Church Siege46 reports

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He told the court that he went to retrieve it so that he could give it to the pastor who, he claimed, had requested it.  The witness testified that before he went to retrieve the gun from the bus, the pastor had already taken a private Glock pistol from a policewoman, who was a member of the church, and fired it at cops who had arrived at the scene.   The prosecutor told the very attentive jurors that what the defence has put forward in relation to guns and other things, must be rejected.   “Reject it. Reject it. Don’t believe it,” Bernard said.    She encouraged the jurors not to be drawn out by “small fries and side orders”.   “Do not be distracted because you hear gun. This matter is not about gun or shooting. There is nothing on the indictment here that is requiring any of you seven to make any deliberation about any gun or any shooting because the death of Taneka Gardner was not by a gun,” she said, reminding them that it was a knife that was used to kill Gardner.   “You heard the pathologist give this evidence to the court and told you that the only thing to the neck that was not cut was the spine. Everything else, all soft tissues, arteries, jugular, trachea, everything was cut. So, let us not be drawn out when they come to you with these things,” Bernard said.   The prosecutor pointed out that since Ruddock chose to give evidence from the witness box, his testimony has to be given a similar weight to the prosecution’s case, however she still insisted that his story ought to be rejected.   “The Crown is submitting to you that on that day in question, Andre Ruddock carried out the instructions of Pastor Smith. Pastor Smith did not leave the boardwalk,” she told the jurors, alluding to a boardwalk which pastor Smith stood on while giving the instructions for Gardner’s throat to be cut.   She also rubbished claims by the defence that Ruddock was threatened, assaulted and essentially forced to confess to the killing in a caution statement and a question-and-answer session at a police station in Montego Bay, St James.   As she had done during her cross examination of Ruddock while he was in the witness box, she again put the question out there as to why, out of a total 11 males that were taken away from the church by the security forces, Ruddock was the only one blamed for cutting Gardner’s throat. She pointed out that Ruddock was trying to pluck a get out of jail card when he claimed that the pastor killed Gardner and wanted him to take the blame for it.   “Let me ask you a question before I close. I asked him why he told us 11 males to include himself and Pastor Smith were arrested on that day. If you take out him and pastor Smith who died, why was he chosen to take his fall? Why? What was so special for him to take? Why one of the [remaining] nine wasn’t chosen? It’s a matter for you,” Bernard said to the jurors.   “Importantly, he said the detective constable told him that he must take the charge for the boss and the boss will look after him when he goes to prison. Wasn’t the boss also handcuffed and arrested too? Make it make sense. Let it make sense. It’s not adding up. Madam forewoman and her members, you have been with us almost two months and you have seen and you have heard. You have all taken your oath to return a true verdict according to the evidence and I am asking you to do just that.”   Using props to try and get his message across to the jurors, Ruddock’s lawyer, Anthony Williams took out a black umbrella, a flashlight and an egg.   With the umbrella, which he opened up in court and held over the heads of the prosecutors, Williams told the jurors that the prosecution’s case was in shambles.   “The prosecution’s case is clouded and it is covered in darkness and we will show you the light out of the darkness,” he said as he held the umbrella over the heads of the prosecutors and also turned on a flashlight in the direction of the jurors.   “The darkness is over this side but I want you to follow me where the truth is with this light,” he said, before moving on to attempt to discredit the character and credibility of the main witness in the trial.   “The prosecution’s case is full of darkness and that darkness has an avalanche, a mass of lies. The prosecution’s case consists of a mass of deceitfulness with its witnesses. Dishonesty, unscrupulousness by the police and the major witness, the major witness of fact. Their case is covered in darkness with the lack of forensic evidence,” Williams added.   As he wrapped up his closing arguments, Williams took out an egg and broke it, impressing upon the jurors that their verdict was like handling an egg and that they have to handle it carefully.   He said if the broken egg is in such a state where it cannot be cooked, it would have to be thrown away. He used that message to impress upon the jurors that they cannot afford to make the wrong decision and allow Ruddock’s life to be thrown away because of a bad choice. Williams insisted during his closing arguments that the wrong man was on trial.   The trial resumes today when Judge Leighton Pusey will begin and complete his summation then turn the matter over to the jurors to deliberate and return with a verdict.