ANDRE “Blackman” Bryan, the man accused of being leader of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang, had no qualms about taking out any of his followers who had crossed him, a former member of the criminal organisation turned State witness claimed yesterday.

Witness number one — the second ex-member of the gang to testify against 33 alleged members being tried before Chief Justice Bryan Sykes in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston — told the court that the accused, Jahzeel Blake, otherwise called Squeeze Eye, and Chevoy Evans, also known as Kartel, had barely escaped that fate.

“On one occasion Blackman sent for [name omitted] and Hezzie [the accused identified as Mark Miller] to kill Squeeze Eye. I was there when he get Kirk, o/c Biggs [not on trial] to go and pick them up because he want Squeeze Eye fi dead and dem to do the killing,” witness number one told the court. He claimed that on the day in question he was at the gang’s headquarters at Jones Avenue in Spanish Town in 2017.

In the case of Kartel, the witness claimed that Bryan had “wanted to kill him seh he is an informer”. Furthermore, the witness, in telling the court that the gang “have a lot of AK47s”, said that Bryan was also “having a problem with Kartel because Kartel fire out the shots in the AK one New Year’s Eve and only three shots were left”. He said Bryan issued an ultimatum to Kartel to work out how he was going to replace the shots he had wasted.

The witness, who began his testimony on Wednesday from a remote location, claimed that he had been in the gang’s top tier and had, at one point, been selected by Bryan to be the don for Lauriston in St Catherine. He has so far testified that he had known several of the accused from childhood and was knowledgeable of their roles and activities within the gang.

Yesterday the witness cried as he told the court that his best friend is currently among those being tried for crimes committed by the alleged members.

On Wednesday the witness had testified that the communities of Rivoli and Waterloo Lane in St Catherine were the seats of the ruthless gang’s kangaroo court, where errant gang members could be beaten or even killed stemming from the displeasure of their alleged leader and cronies.

“If you do something wrong, that’s the court that they try you in. For instance, if you are part of the gang and yuh name a call up, if yuh don’t go yourself, others will come for you and dem beat yuh. And if everybody vote against yuh, dat mean seh dem a go kill yuh. But, it all up to Blackman at the end of the day,” the witness told a shocked courtroom.

Going further to cement his claim that such a “court” existed, he said “at one point I had to beg for Stenneth [accused Michael Whitley], who is a foot solider and a shooter”.

The former gang member had also told the court that the gang had a hierarchy with Bryan at the helm, followed by him and an individual so far identified only as “City Puss”.

The Crown, in opening its case on September 20, had said the accused individuals, which comprise the “Blackman faction” of the gang under Bryan’s leadership, had various roles in which they acted as “killers, drivers, lookout men or watchmen, gunsmiths and foot soldiers”.

The Crown is alleging that the accused, between 2015 and 2019, carried out a range of murders, conspiracies to murder, extortion and arson throughout St Catherine. It said the gang’s headquarters at Jones Avenue in Spanish Town was used by gang members for planning their exploits and was also where briefing and debriefing in respect of crimes took place.

The court also heard that this was where transactions such as the sale and purchase of guns to carry out murders were done. Several members of the gang, in their roles as “foot soldiers”, the court was told, were responsible for ensuring that murders ordered were executed and that extortion monies were collected.

The case, which includes the largest number of accused ever to be tried together in a single matter, is being handled by 40 attorneys. The accused are being tried under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) (Amendment) Act, commonly called the anti-gang legislation, with several facing additional charges under the Firearms Act for crimes allegedly committed between 2015 and 2019. All 33 accused, who are being tried under an indictment containing 25 counts, when arraigned on September 20 at the start of the trial, pleaded “not guilty” to the charges against them.

The offences for which they are being charged include being part of a criminal organisation, murder, conspiracy to murder, arson, illegal possession of firearm and illegal possession of ammunition. Bryan is charged with, among other things, being the leader of a criminal organisation — Klansman/One Don gang.