THE statement of a dead exotic dancer which had been the subject of a long-running legal clash between Crown and defence in the ongoing Klansman gang trial shed some light Monday on the events which unfolded the night massage parlour operator Noah Smith was killed at Yarico Place in St Andrew.

The admissibility of that statement and the identity of the woman had been the subject of a protracted legal skirmish over several weeks in the trial which began in February this year. The witness, Shaniece Roberts, had died in February 2021 from health complications but provided a statement to cops, ahead of her demise, regarding Smith’s Friday, February 7, 2020 murder.

The accused — Michael Wildman, Jerome Spike, Nashuan Guest, and Geovaughni McDonald — are being tried for “knowingly facilitating the commission” of that murder and robbery.

Trial judge Justice Dale Palmer, who took matters into his own hands after the Crown and defence could not agree on which aspects of the statement should be redacted, made the omissions and ruled Monday that the statement of the exotic dancer was “now Exhibit 23” in the trial.

The dancer, in the statement recorded by a detective constable, said Smith, whom she referred to as her “boss”, was shot and killed during a robbery conducted by four men.

She said Smith, otherwise known as Jason, operated the massage parlour at his home at 16 Yarico Place in St Andrew where she said “other persons would come and invest in his business”. According to Roberts, Smith also operated another business.

The dancer, who provided the aliases of six other dancers whom she said “worked” for Smith, said she had just recently moved to Kingston to live at the location, due to “health issues” she was experiencing, when the murder took place.

She said on the night in question around 10:15 pm she was “inside the living room with Jason (and another of the female workers) watching television”, while the other females were upstairs.

Roberts said she had gotten up to fix something to eat in the kitchen when she heard her boss say “client”, following a knock at the door.

She said that “client” turned out to be a masked man who ordered herself and the other female to “Get down and don’t make a sound,” at the same time telling them, “nuh worry, a nuh unuh wi come fa”.

She said another male clad in orange then entered the room, repeating the same words as his accomplice, while another bound their hands with tie straps.

She said her boss, who was at this time also on the floor, was bound while one man kicked him, demanding “Weh di credit card deh? Weh di money deh?”

She said that male, in taking money from Smith’s back pocket, went on to ask, “Weh di rest a di money deh?”

She said while a protesting Smith told them he had no more money, two other men removed the television set from the living room.

According to Roberts one assailant, in pocketing a Bluetooth speaker he removed from a counter, began loading a gun saying, “A kill wi fi kill dem gal yah” but was told, “Loww [leave] di gal dem.”

She said the man then went over to Smith telling him “…bwoy a dead yuh fi dead” and fired at him before leaving.

The woman, who said she was just a few feet from the mortally wounded Smith who now lay “in a pool of blood”, said she then freed herself before helping her coworker to untie her hands. She said they then both ran through a back door and hid in a shed in the yard until the attackers left. She said upon returning inside they went upstairs in search of the other females, who they found hiding in a closet.

The incident, she said, lasted about 30 minutes.

Roberts, who said the police arrived after a security team responded to the incident, said she was unable to see the faces of the four men and would not be able to identify them if she saw them again as they were all masked.

The Crown had contended that the witness statement “is directly relevant to the case at bar” and that “her statement is probative and relevant to the case”. Over the course of its submissions the Crown had indicated that while none of the 25 accused were named in the statement, it was not the only evidence the prosecution had in its arsenal relating to the two counts.

The 25 accused said to comprise the Tesha Miller-led faction of the alleged gang are the second faction of the alleged gang to now be tried by the courts. They are to answer to 16 offences allegedly committed over the span of five years between August 2017 and November 2022, according to the case being built by the Crown.

The matter continues today in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston.