There were more bombshells in the trial of alleged members of the One Don faction of the Clansman gang on Tuesday as the prosecution’s witness alleged that incarcerated dancehall star Vybz Kartel had ordered gang members to kill another entertainer.
Another member of the entertainment fraternity, I-Octane, was also mentioned at the trial when the witness claimed gangsters would visit the artiste at a recording studio.
The male witness, who claimed to be the second-in-command of the gang, began giving evidence last Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the former gangster told the court that the gang was ordered to carry out hits on three people, including an entertainer.
“This instruction was given to me by Vybz Kartel by phone,” the witness testified when asked who ordered the hits.
The witness claimed two of the targets were killed in Waterford, Portmore, St Catherine. However, the hit on the unidentified entertainer was missed.
The witness claimed that defendant Jahzeel Blake, alias ‘Squeeze Eye’, was the driver of the motor vehicle transporting the gangsters when the double murder took place, as well as when the attempt was made on the life of the unidentified entertainer
The witness also claimed that alleged gang leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan sent him to monitor one of Kartel’s video shoots on McKinley Crescent in St Andrew.
The witness was to ensure the video shoot for the song ‘Buck Up Inna’ ran smoothly.
Vybz Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, along with Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John were convicted, in 2014, for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
The men are serving lengthy prison sentences for the offence.
Earlier, the former gangster testified that members of the One Don faction of the Clansman gang were close associates of people in the entertainment industry.
He made that disclosure while detailing how he met alleged members of the gang.
According to him, he met defendant Fabian Johnson between 2013 and 2014. Johnson, Bryan and the witness would allegedly visit a recording studio owned by I-Octane, whose real name is Byiome Muir.
The witness said they went there to record music.
The witness testified, too, that Bryan would leave the gang’s headquarters on Jones Avenue in Spanish Town, St Catherine, to visit a recording studio in Dunrobin, St Andrew.
He claimed that on that occasion, the entertainer’s daughter was there while he recorded songs.
In the meantime, the witness, who has given stunning evidence over the past days, suggested that he aided the police in building their case against the gang by remaining a member of the criminal organisation.
Two illegal firearms seized by the police were retrieved with assistance from the witness, the court heard.
Bryan, 31 other men, and a woman are being tried in the Home Circuit Court under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations Act), 2014, better known as the anti-gang legislation, on an indictment with 25 counts, for allegedly being part of a criminal organisation, in the judge-alone trial.
Bryan and his co-accused have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The men and the woman have been charged with multiple offences, including being part of a criminal organisation, illegal possession of firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, facilitating conspiracy to murder, and facilitating arson.
The offences allegedly occurred between January 1, 2015, and June 30, 2019, in St Catherine.
The trial is to continue on Wednesday.
