DWIGHT Henry, 33, the man who is serving life for the 2016 murders of American missionaries Randy Hentzel and Harold Nichols on Tuesday appeared to recant pretrial statements to the police in which he admitted to being the primary actor, telling cops a “strange feeling came over me” and ending the confession with, “That’s it, black lives count.”

Taking the stand in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, Henry, in turning against his “far cousin” Dwight Thomas – who is now standing trial for his role in the slayings – insisted that he was only responsible for the death of one of the men, while his cousin shot and chopped the other. He further claimed that he did not know the men and was seeing them for the first time on the day of the murders. He claimed that neither the ambush nor murders were planned and said none of the victims spoke during the entire episode.

Nichols, 53, and Hentzel, 49, his colleague missionary for the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions, went missing on Saturday, April 30, 2016 after leaving their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles to visit a site where they would be doing some charity work the following week. When they did not return, a frantic search party later that day discovered Hentzel’s body lying face down, his green helmet still over his head, with his arms bound “tightly” behind his back by a piece of cloth torn from the green T-shirt in which he was clad. Nichols’ body was found several miles away on the Sunday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Henry, a high school graduate who says he is hoping to learn to read in prison, staunchly resisted suggestions from defence attorney Leroy Equiano that he had told cops that his relatives told him about “things that white people do to black people that make you hate them”.

Henry, who said he had worked for a popular tourist resort before turning to farming, in insisting that he did not remember using the words “black lives count”, when asked to explain whether the words meant anything to him said, “Yes, black lives count because I am a black man and I love all people. I’m not a prejudiced person.”

He was also dismissive of the attorney’s line of reasoning that he had turned against his cousin in anger and decided to implicate him in the murders because he was told that Thomas was the one who gave the police information about him.

“It wasn’t the police told me,” Henry said stonily.

In being led through his evidence by a senior prosecutor moments earlier, Henry, who will be eligible for parole after serving 28 years, said on the Saturday morning in question he and Thomas were “up in the bush, chopping jelly [coconuts]” when they saw the two men approaching on motorbikes.

He claimed that Thomas stopped the men at gunpoint and told them to get off the bikes. Henry said he told one of the men to lie down on the ground and tied him up with a piece of cloth torn from the shirt he wore. He said the next man ran off and was fired on by Thomas. He said he joined Thomas in chasing that man, leaving the other man tied up.

“While wi running him down, the man fall in a pool of water; Andre Thomas shoot him then he chop him in his head with a machete…then we came back up at the top where we tie up the next man, then I shoot the next man in his head back, me do it miss, then we go our separate ways,” Henry said. According to the inmate, Thomas was the one who gave him the gun so he could shoot the victim.

Asked why he shot him, he said, “Is just a strange feeling come over mi, that’s why I did what I did, but annoh mi do it alone miss.”

Last Thursday a consultant forensic pathologist contracted by the national security ministry disclosed that Hentzel died instantly from a single bullet to the head fired at close range, while Nichols, who was still alive after being shot once in the back, died from one of six chop wounds to his head delivered with enough force to chop “the branch of a big tree”.

Tuesday, Equiano, in cross-examining Henry, spotlighted the variances in his statement to the police when compared to his testimony on the stand. A stone-faced Henry, who became almost sphinxlike had to be prodded by presiding judge Justice Leighton Pusey to answer the attorney at several instances.

According to Equiano, Henry, in his statement to the police, had said he was the one to stop the men and tell them, “Don’t move.” He, also in that statement, said he and his cousin ran after the man [Nichols] and that he was the one to shoot him.

“It wasn’t me shoot him,” Henry said, to which Equiano retorted, “I want to know if those were your words to the police?”

Henry, who refused to answer when Equiano repeated the question as to whether he had said his cousin was the one to chop [Nichols in the head], said, “Yes.” When asked if he recalled telling the police, when asked why he shot the men, that, “Something came into me I couldn’t control,” Henry, head down, refused to answer.

Prodded by the judge, he said, “I only shoot one of the man your honour.” He gave no answer when asked to confirm if he had told the police that he had given the Intratec gun used in the shootings to a friend the same day. Asked whether he had told the police that he fired two shots, Henry said, “I didn’t fire two shot, I fire one shot in the man head back.”

“I’m not asking you what you did, I am asking you what you said,” Equiano shot back.

“I did not tell the police that,” Henry replied. He, however, admitted under further questioning from Equiano that he had told the police that he had thrown the machete he said Thomas used to chop the missionary into the river and it would not be found.

On Tuesday, Thomas at times, during the testimony of Henry, was observed shaking his head from side to side. As Henry gave his version of how the murders unfolded, Thomas, clad in a black pants and red shirt with white dots, listened intently, face turned upwards, the fingers of one hand splayed across his throat.

The matter, which is being heard by Supreme Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey with a jury, resumes today at 10:00 am when a ballistics expert is expected to take the stand.