Wakeem Guishard (left) and Mitch Christopher. Photo: VINO/File

Christopher along with Marcus Lloyd and Wakeem Guishard are being tried for the third time for the murder of ‘Tiger’ Hodge in September 2010. Photo: Provided

Christopher, along with Marcus Lloyd and Wakeem Guishard, is being tried for the third time for the murder of Hodge in September 2010.

Terrance Abudullah Charles, who was previously arrested and charged for murder in relation to Hodge's death, pleaded guilty in December 2011 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Charles said he had seen Wakeem Guishard with an AK-47 assault rifle the day Hodge was murdered. He said the weapon was in Guishard’s lap as he was driving. According to Charles, Guishard signalled him by whistling and shouted “Yo” from Tiger’s residence.

However, in defence of his client Guishard, Attorney at Law Jamal S. Smith maintained that Charles was not being truthful and that Guishard was not around. Smith also debunked the suggestion that Guishard had an AK-47 rifle.

Charles testified that Guishard was driving Tiger’s jeep from Tiger’s home with an AK-47 in his lap, to which Smith said was untrue.

According to Smith, Guishard and Charles were never friends, to which Charles disagreed.

A criminal past

In his testimony, Charles said he left his country of origin, St Kitts and Nevis, to escape from trouble and he said he never told his employer of his criminal past because they “never asked.”

He said that six months after arriving in the territory he ended up breaking the law. Charles agreed with the attorney that one year after arriving in the territory he was involved in a brutal murder.

Charles told the court that he changed the story he gave to the police on June 3, 2011 because he was “scared” and that because he did not want to “rat out my friends.”

Defence attorney Valerie Stephens-Gordon said that Charles changed his story after he heard of the strength of the evidence against him. “I am putting it to you that you lied to the police by saying Mitch Christopher was involved,” said Gordon.

“I suggest that you are lying when you say that Mitch Christopher stopped the vehicle and you took over the driving...no such thing happened because Mitch Christopher was not there,” Stephens-Gordon said. To this Charles disagreed.

Stephens-Gordon also refuted Charles’ testimony that he went into Tiger’s home and saw Mitch Christopher standing over the body of ‘Tiger’ Hodge.

Charles said that Mitch Christopher was the one to direct him to where the safe was in ‘Tiger’s’ house but Stephens-Gordon accused him of making up stories. He said that he was in touching distance of Hodge’s body and that Christopher had to help him get the safe from the house to the vehicle.

Testimony of various witnesses continue this week.