KINGSTON, Jamaica— Dr Claudette Clarke, the widow of murdered accountant Keith Clarke, reiterated on Monday that no one else apart from the three members of her family was present at her house on May 27, 2010, when her husband was shot dead during a police-military operation to capture then-fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

It is alleged that Dudus, who was wanted by United States law enforcement officials on drugs and weapons charges, and seven of his men were staying in the basement of the Clarke residence. This allegedly triggered the raid by the security forces.

However, Clarke’s widow has consistently denied that there were any gunmen or anyone else apart from herself, her teenage daughter, and her husband at the house.

READ: Drama at Keith Clarke murder trial

At the end of the raid, Clarke was found dead inside his house. According to defence attorneys, Dudus and his seven henchmen escaped into a heavily forested area behind the house that leads to Red Hills Road.

Three Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers, Lance Corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley, as well as Private Arnold Henry, were charged in 2012 in relation to the shooting death of Clarke.

On Monday, during cross-examination by attorney Linton Gordon, who is representing Private Henry, Dr Clarke was puzzled as to why only her husband was shot more than 20 times, and not any of Coke’s henchmen, whom the defence insists were staying at the premises.

“These are the people defending our country?” a puzzled Dr Clarke asked, “Not one of the gunmen could have been killed except my husband, sir?”

Defending her husband’s reputation, Dr Clarke insisted that when the continuous sounds of gunfire erupted around the house, Clarke told her to hide in the bathroom with their daughter, Britney, who was 18 years old at the time. She said her husband climbed on top of the closet after stating that he was not going to allow criminals to invade and kill his family. He reportedly instructed her to close the bathroom door. Dr Clarke said that shortly after, soldiers entered the master bedroom, prompting her to open the bathroom door and identify herself. She claimed that while in the process of identifying herself, she pointed to her husband who was climbing down from the closet. Dr Clarke alleged that she heard someone shout “gun,” and then her husband was peppered with bullets.

According to her, he was unarmed.

However, Gordon suggested to the witness that she was lying.

“I suggest to you that you never saw Mr Clarke climbing down when he was shot. I am also suggesting to you that Mr. Keith Clarke pointed his gun at the security forces entering that morning. When he pointed the gun at security forces, someone shouted ‘gun,’ and that was when the shooting started in the bedroom,” Gordon said to Dr Clarke.

Gordon also suggested to the witness that it was only after receiving information from the ballistics report that she concocted a story of him being shot in the back.

Gordon’s final suggestion to Dr Clarke before ending his cross-examination was that gunmen were firing at the security forces from her house.

She responded, “I repeat 100 million times. There was no one else on the premises. If there were, I did not see them and would not know where they came from. My husband left the room, but there was no one else in my home, sir.”

Following the completion of Dr Clarke’s testimony on Monday, her daughter, Britney, the second witness in the trial, took the stand to allow prosecutor Latoya Bernard to begin the examination-in-chief.

Britney corroborated most of her mother’s testimony.

– Jason Cross