KINGSTON, Jamaica — Former gangster turned state witness says the variations in his statements while he was a gang member was to protect Tesha Miller, who is currently on trial for being an accessory before and after the fact in relation to the June 27, 2008 murder of then Jamaica Urban Transit Company Chairman Douglas Chambers.

The witness also told the court that the variation in his recent statement was to protect his family as well.

On Monday, Miller’s attorney Bert Samuels submitted that parts of the testimony the witness gave last week were not in the statement he gave to the police, which he had signed.

Witness One, who sought to explain on numerous occasions during the trial why he said certain things in his 14-page statement that took him 13 months and four days to complete, said on Monday: “Everything that I said here from the start to the finish is the truth.”

Earlier in the trial he said that he had no family.

Moments after the court resumed this morning following a five-minute break due to a lizard that was in the jury box, the witness, during re-examination by the prosecutor, told the court that he deliberately said he was “a single youth” and that he had no family.

He went on further to say that 13 of his family members were killed and as a result, he stayed away from them.

“I have my family dem out there. Thirteen of them has (sic) died so me try my best as I can to stay away from them. The statement that I gave, I can die and that is why I say I can’t do any better, ” the witness said.

Earlier in the trial, it was revealed that the witness, who testified that he knew Miller from he was 11 years old, told the police that he knew Miller for five months.

“If we as a member of Klansman Gang give certain information about the don we can end up dead and that is why I keep it far from the police,” the witness said.

Racquel Porter