Dr Claudette Clarke, the widow of accountant Keith Clarke, testified Tuesday that on May 26, 2010 three members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) gained entry to their bedroom, asked for her husband, then shot him while his back was turned.

Clarke was killed during an operation conducted by the JDF, which was aimed at capturing then fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

The three soldiers, lance corporals Greg Tinglin and Odel Buckley as well as Private Arnold Henry, are on trial in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston for Clarke’s murder at his Kirkland Heights home in St Andrew.

Since 2012, the case has encountered numerous hurdles which prevented it from reaching trial, but that status changed on Tuesday with Dr Clarke as the first witness in the matter, giving her testimony to a seven-member jury and trial judge Justice Dale Palmer.

“My husband told us to go inside the bathroom in the master bedroom. When we went into the bathroom, he went on top of the closet in the bedroom. I heard sounds like the door was being sawed off. We had locked ourselves in. While in the bathroom with my daughter, we were praying. I told her we should go out there even though we didn’t know who it was and beg for mercy. As soon as the door opened, three men dressed in military gear came in. When I came out of the bathroom my daughter was right behind me.

“The faces of the men were covered and they wore something over their heads. I could only see their eyes. They had weapons in their hands, big, long guns with lights at the end. I identified myself and told them I was a justice of the peace and my husband is Keith Clarke. Before I even finished, they said, ‘Weh him deh?’ By that time he was coming down from the closet with his back turned to us. He was holding on and coming down. I did not see anything in his hands. By time I showed them that he was coming down, gunshots started,” Dr Clarke said, testifying that the soldiers did not properly identify themselves as members of the JDF.

She said the only question they were asking was, “Weh di rest a di gunman dem deh?”

According to Dr Clarke, who held back tears in court, nobody else was inside the room or anywhere else in the house at the time of the incident and insisted that it was only herself, her daughter, and her husband at home.

Dr Clarke also insisted that no one had stayed with the family at their two-storey house in the week and days leading up to the killing of her chartered accountant husband.

She recalled that she earlier returned home on May 26, 2010 with the younger of her two daughters after a rehearsal at the Little Theatre.

When they got home, no one was there, according to Dr Clarke.

“We opened the door and locked it behind us. My husband came home about one hour after my daughter and I got home. By then I was in bed, and he asked if there was dinner and I told him no, because I was tired. He was looking sad and I felt guilty, so I went down and made him a sandwich. My daughter was in her room. I went to bed and was in bed for about 10 minutes when I heard a sound like a plane or helicopter. I didn’t pay it any mind at first but the sound was getting closer and closer. I got up and looked through my bedroom window. I saw the helicopter and bright lights shining from it.

“The light was coming from the front of the helicopter. I woke up my husband and told him that something was flying around with a bright light. He got up, looked, and then went back to bed but not to sleep. I heard sounds like something was dropping on the house top. I shook him and said, ‘Keith, Keith, get up. Something is dropping on the house.’ It was getting more frequent. I also heard sounds at the side of the house like somebody was trying to saw the door,” she said.

Dr Clarke said she went to her daughter’s bedroom to wake her before they headed downstairs towards the basement. Due to panic, she said she could not find the keys to open the door leading to the basement, and because of that, she, along with her daughter and husband, went back upstairs to the master bedroom where they sought to hide themselves from the perceived danger.

“I was scared, wondering what was happening. My husband was looking scared too. My daughter called the police. We also called the neighbour and our pastor,” she told the court.

Dr Clarke said that while she and her daughter were inside the master bedroom, her husband left the room and came back inside before climbing on top of the closet to hide. She said that she did not know where he went or what he went to do.

The trial continues today with Dr Clarke continuing her testimony.