Andre Ruddock’s Murder Trial Hears Evidence From Pathways Church Siege

A detective superintendent testified in the murder trial of Andre Ruddock that a female police officer, believed to be a Pathways church member, approached her at the St James church compound on the day Kevin Smith’s service turned deadly and said she had information and a gun. The witness also described arriving to gunfire, seeing injured and apparently lifeless people inside, and coordinating police and JDF reinforcements as the court hears details of the chaotic 2021 incident.

Two defence lawyers continued representing murder accused Andre Ruddock in his part-heard trial on Monday, saying they had their client’s written permission to do so despite a wider legal protest over Jamaica’s firearms law. The case concerns the 2021 killing of Taneka Gardner at Kevin Smith’s Pathways church in St James, where a police sergeant described a chaotic, violent scene as the trial continued.

A police sergeant testified that he shot a knife-wielding man at Pathways International Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James, after the man ran toward officers shouting death threats and refused orders to disarm. The evidence is part of Andre Ruddock’s murder trial over Taneka Gardner’s 2021 killing at the church, which remains linked to allegations of a ritual killing and church leaders’ instructions to attack police.

A police constable told the court that Kevin Smith allegedly ordered church members to kill police if they tried to enter Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Montego Bay on October 17, 2021, as officers heard gunshots and found bodies on the compound. The testimony came in the murder trial of Andre Ruddock, who is accused of killing Taneka Gardner during a supposed sacrificial ritual that left three people dead.

A police constable testified in Andre Ruddock’s murder trial that officers responding to reports at Pathways International church in St James heard a voice ordering people to “kill the police” if they entered the property. He also said officers saw a body partly covered with a white sheet before gunfire broke out and the scene was breached by police and soldiers. The evidence is part of the case over the 2021 killing of Taneka Gardner during an alleged ritual linked to pastor Kevin Smith.

In the Home Circuit Court, defence lawyer Anthony Williams accused the prosecution’s key witness in the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries murder case of lying to police about the killing of Taneka Gardner. The witness, a former junior minister, stood by his account that Andre Ruddock cut Gardner’s throat after instructions from Kevin Smith, while disputing parts of his written statements.

In the Home Circuit Court, Andre Ruddock’s lawyer argued that a witness accusing him of killing Taneka Gardner at Pathways International Restoration Ministries had a grudge and was lying. The witness said pastor Kevin Smith ordered the killing, but Williams suggested Smith, not Ruddock, cut Gardner’s throat and challenged inconsistencies between the witness’s police statement and court testimony.