Murder accused Dario Taitt told a 12-member jury he has spent more than three years in jail for a slaying he did not commit, and that he does not know who killed Jamal Clarke.
“This is 41 months I in jail for something I ain’t do. I am an innocent man. I did not kill Jamal Clarke. I do not know who kill Jamal Clarke and I have nothing to do with it,” said Taitt, as he opted to give an unsworn statement from the dock of the No. 3 Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Taitt, of Silver Sands, Christ Church, pleaded not guilty to murdering Jamal Clarke on May 2, 2023.
He recalled that in April 2023, a few friends came by his tattoo shop. One of them had a phone and asked him to unlock it, but he told him he wasn’t a technician. The man put the phone on a ledge; they watched TV, and Taitt fell asleep. When he awoke, everyone had gone.
He continued: “A couple of days after, I was in the tattoo shop breezing again. I hear a knock on the door, so I get up and look, and it was Jamal Clarke – Bat Boy. I open the door and he tell me ‘bout them same phone. I tell he I never had no phone; that he could come in and look on the ledge and see if it there. He come in, look ‘pon the ledge [and said:] ‘Man wunna come and carry way my phone’. That time he frothing, he pull down the TV.
“I wasn’t looking for nothing so, so I tell myself he [must have] gone back smoking cocaine again, ‘cause he does do a little thing, but at the end of the day that is my friend. I don’t judge he for nothin he do… I didn’t really stress ‘pon it too much. I did feel a sort of way because a man that was supposed to be my friend come by me and tell me ‘bout a phone that I don’t know nothing ‘bout; I did feel a sorta way.
“Anybody that say that wouldn’t make them feel a sort o’ way will got to be a liar, but because I feel a way doesn’t mean that I would want to do he some ting.”
Taitt said Clarke left and returned later in the day, quarrelling.“He say he got he own gun and he ain’t got to borrow he brother gun. All I tellin’ he is that I ain’t know nothing ‘bout no phone.”
Clarke left again but returned while Taitt was attending to a female customer. He began threatening Taitt, then snatched and damaged a window net, frightening the client, who left the shop. Taitt said he then tidied the shop before sitting outside.
The accused said that on May 2, after waking early and having an unsuccessful search for marijuana with an acquaintance, he went home and packed. He told the court he had previously lived in Six Roads and frequently moved between the two areas, doing tattoos at his uncle’s house.
Taitt added: “I tell myself, I don’t know wuh Bat Boy ‘pon. He gone back smoking, come by my place three times the day before and run off a client. This body is a new client, and I ain’t want he run off nobody again so the best thing to do is go by my uncle and deal with that.”
He recalled travelling to town by van before catching another bound for Bayfield. Taitt said the appointment was for between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and he spent “a good couple of hours on the tattoo”.
“When I done, it was in the afternoon. After that, I hear my name call for killing Bat Boy,” he said.
He said he cut his hair on the advice of his uncle, who told him police had been pulling other people by their hair, and then went to the doctor.
“I tell myself I can’t handle no beatings nor nothing so”, he said, while showing the jury a doctor’s certificate.
He also visited a lawyer, who told him he would take him to the police station the following Monday.
Taitt recalled: “I went up by Marchfield by my cousin and I hear a noise. When I get up and look outside, I see two gunmen now jump out a jeep. This jeep ain’t had on no beacons, nor nothing that would mark it as a police jeep, and these men ain’t got on no police clothes, no police vests, nor no bodycams, so automatically I tell myself dat is [for] Bat Boy [they] come for me. So you know I gotta get from ‘bout here; I end up running off. I running through the yard and a man juk a gun in my face, and I stop, and that’s when them tell me them is police and asking me where the gun is. But I ain’t kill nobody.”
The accused said he fully co-operated with police, signed the consent form for his DNA to be taken, and gave them his phone number.
He said Clarke had enemies and had “kill” and “shoot all kind of man”.
Taitt said: “I don’t have no convictions or pending charges. This is the first charge that I ever get in my whole life because I ain’t dat sort of man. I know we as Bajans tend to have a certain stigma when it comes to tattoos, especially tattoos on ya face. I is a tattoo artist, and that is how we express ourselves, through art…
“I may have tattoos in my face, drink a lot of alcohol, smoke some weed, deal with more than one woman at the same time, but what I never do is shoot nor kill nobody.
“All I asking is to have a fair hearing.”
He also removed his shirt to show the tattoos on his body, saying that the videos shown in court featured two bare-backed men, neither of whom had such body art.
Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Krystal Delaney, acting Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce and State Counsel Kwame Ramsay are prosecuting, while defence counsel Martie Garnes represents Taitt.
Justice Carlisle Greaves is presiding over the trial.
(JB)
