MONTEGO BAY, St James — Convicted murderer Mario Morrison on Thursday testified that 15-year-old Shineka Gray fought for her life as Gregory Roberts stabbed her to death after they both had sex with her.

He also related to the St James Circuit Court the horrific details of how she begged for her life to be spared as he recorded the young girl’s gruesome killing, at Roberts’s request, using Roberts’ cellphone.

Morrison, who kept a smile on his face throughout most of his testimony, told the court that Roberts asked him to record the murder because he (Roberts) was going to make a “sacrifice”. That word has been a recurring theme throughout the trial so far.

“We picked up a young lady at Courts [in downtown Montego Bay], and she was waiting on a taxi to go to Bogue Village. He (Roberts) stopped at the UDC [Urban Development Corporation] and had sex with her. Then [Roberts] said he wanted to pick up something at Granville, and the young lady was saying she wanted to go to Bogue,” Morrison said in his evidence in chief.

“After reaching Irwin, he said to the female, ‘You not going to give the ‘dog’ sex or head?’ Then after, she was like, she wanted to go home… He videoed himself hugging the girl. Afterward, he passed the phone to me, saying, ‘Dog, video this for me,’…And I’m videoing now, he had the knife and started to stab her… She started crying and bawling, even saying, ‘Lord, this is what you going to do to your daughter?'” Morrison testified.

Asked by lead prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby if he noticed anything about Gray while she was being stabbed, Morrison said, “She was actually fighting for her life at one point”.

Morrison also spoke of receiving Gray’s phone from Roberts the day after her death, placing his SIM card in it and making two calls, as well as the role he played in leading police to the location of her body.

“When you were arrested, did you give a caution statement?” Martin-Swaby asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Morrison replied.

“Did you tell them you had sex with her?” the prosecutor asked.

“No, because I was just trying to free myself,” Morrison replied.

It was also revealed in court that in July 2021 Morrison had discussions with his attorney, and the prosecution and defence entered into a plea deal, following which he was sentenced to life in prison. However, Morrison stated in court on Thursday that he had intended to enter a guilty plea as early as 2018.

“How did you feel that night after you had sex with her?” Martin-Swaby asked Morrison.

“I was embarrassed because I know I could have saved her life,” Morrison said.

When the prosecutor asked the witness if everything he had said was true, he replied, “I am telling the truth and nothing but the truth.”

Under cross-examination, defence attorney Leroy Equiano told Morrison that he had lied to the police in order to implicate someone else.

“The first thing you told the police is that you wanted to free yourself. Isn’t that so?” the attorney asked, to which Morrison replied in the affirmative.

“You said you had sex with her in Irwin. Was it inside or outside the car?” the attorney asked.

“It was outside the car,” Morrison replied, adding that Shineka agreed to have sex with him because Roberts instructed her to do so.

Roberts and Morrison were arrested and charged with Shineka’s murder after her body was found with multiple stab wounds in bushes in Irwin, St James, on February 1, 2017.

The trial continues on Monday, December 4.

So far, the court has heard from seven of the prosecution’s 18 witnesses in the case against Roberts.