Peddie shot nine times

(CNS):The Grand Court has heard that 25-year-old Alrick Peddie, aka ‘Bling’, was hit with nine bullets when he was gunned down in West Bay on the afternoon of 24 March last year. On Wednesday, the third day of the trial of Jose Sanchez (24), Roger Bush (36) and Aaron Crawford (18), who are accused of killing Peddie, the prosecution presented evidence from the victim’s wife, several police officers, reports from DNA and telecoms experts, as well as statements from the defendants. The crown’s case against the West Bay men relies heavily on the eye witness account given by Michael Ebanks, who said he saw the three men in a dark tinted Honda Civic at the scene at the time of the shooting. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

Ebanks states that he was with Peddie only seconds before he was shot. He told the court this week that he saw the three defendants pull up to the house in Willie Farrington Drive in the red car and as they started to get out he ran from the scene. He revealed that, seconds later, he heard six to seven gun shots. Ebanks said he returned to the same place he had been with Peddie when the shooting stopped and found him on the ground with multiple holes in his body.

On Wednesday, Peddie’s wife’s told the court that her husband had worked as a security guard at the Next Level night club on West Bay Road but had quit after the murder of Carlo Webster, who was shot in the head inside the club in September 2009.

During cross examination by the defence attorney representing Bush, she said Peddie was not working that night and although she was aware that “talk on the street” had been that he had some connection to that shooting, it was not true. She told the court that people may have said things “but nothing was proven as fact.”

A statement given to the police by Crawford, who was only seventeen at the time, was also read to the judge, who is hearing the case without a jury. Shortly after his arrest Crawford denied having anything at all to do with the murder of Peddie.

He said he was home that afternoon with his sister-in-law and did not leave the house until after 5:15, when he went with her to the local pre-school to fetch his step-daughter and her children. The teen told the police he had no idea why someone would call his name and he never owned or even fired a gun in his life except for a flare gun several years before.

Crawford said he knew ‘Bling’ and had hung out with him in the past but it had been some time since he had seen him. As far as he was aware, the accused teen said, Peddie had no trouble with anyone and he didn’t know why they had killed him. The defendant did, however, tell the police during the interview that he had heard that perhaps Peddie had something to do with getting a gun into the club the night Carlo Webster was shot but he didn’t know what he had got messed up in.

The trial continues in court one tomorrow before Justice Harrison, who is presiding alone in what is a busy week for Cayman’s Grand Court, as three out of Cayman’s five judges are currently sitting in criminal trials.

The re-trial of Josue Carillo Perez for the murder of Canadian national Martin Gareau in May 2008 has entered its sixth week and is currently before Justice Smith, who is also presiding alone. The retrial has included a number of recalls of police witnesses and video evidence from expert witnesses. The case is, however, expected to close by the end of this week when counsel will make their closing speeches in a case that hangs on two smudged finger prints.

Meanwhile, Veramae Watson is facing trial by jury for the death of Edwin Edwards in 2007 as a result of dangerous driving. The prosecution told the five women and two men serving on the jury that Watson was driving a Jeep with a homemade trailer carrying rocks, which was badly secured. As a result, the trailer came away from Watson’s Jeep and headed into the path of a local mini-bus being driven by Edwards, who swerved and hit a tree. Edwards died of his injuries a week after the smash in hospital in Jamaica.