Antoine Anderson, one of two men accused of murdering Aquil Richardson has described the shooting victim as one of his friends.

"He was a cool guy," Anderson told the Police during a taped interview played to a jury yesterday.

The January 2008 interview saw Anderson state that he was at his sister's home in Pembroke on the night of the killing, December 26, 2007.

However, straight after the tape was played, his lawyers handed the jury a "notice of alibi". This stated that Anderson's current position is that he was at a house in St. George's that night.

Anderson, 31, is on trial at the Supreme Court along with Philip Bradshaw, 26, charged with murdering Mr. Richardson, 30.

They deny the accusation, and a further accusation of shooting and wounding another man, Lavar Smith, in the same incident.

According to prosecutors, the victims were with a group of men outside a house in Camp Hill, Southampton, when two men dressed in black arrived on a motorcycle between 8.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. The pillion passenger is said to have shot at the group before dismounting and shooting Mr. Richardson twice in the head while he was on the ground.

Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney told the opening of the trial on Monday that investigators found gunshot residue on a jacket worn by Bradshaw that night and on a pair of pants belonging to Anderson.

Yesterday, Detective Constable Leroy Mathurin told the court that he and a colleague conducted a taped interview with Anderson on January 3, 2008. Anderson had been arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr. Richardson, and was accompanied by his then-lawyer, Craig Attridge.

The tape was played to the jury. When asked about his whereabouts between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the night of the killing, Anderson said he worked at Wheels Cycles, and knocked off at 5.30 p.m. He said he then went to his sister Tyeasha Anderson's home in Curving Avenue, Pembroke, arriving around 5.55 - 6 p.m.

Anderson claimed that he stayed there until around 9.30 p.m. when Ms Anderson got involved in an altercation outside her house. Mr. Anderson said after this ended it was after 10 p.m. and "we all went inside".

He told the Police his sister went to her job at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute looking after disabled people around 10.30 p.m., and he stayed the night at her house.

The jury heard earlier in the trial how Antoine Anderson is Tyeasha Anderson's brother on her mother's side. Jakai Harford, who was injured in a shooting in Camp Hill in the early hours of Christmas Day 2007, is her brother on her father's side.

Philip Bradshaw was Ms Anderson's new husband at the time, having recently arrived in Bermuda from Jamaica.

The jury heard on the tape how, when asked by Det. Con Mathurin: "Did you have anything to do with the killing of Aquil Richardson?" Antoine Anderson could be heard replying "no sir."

He further denied injuring Lavar Smith.

Probed on whether there was any "conflict" between himself and Mr. Richardson, the accused replied "we're friends", later going on to state "he was a cool guy".

Anderson told the detective the last time he saw Mr. Richardson was on the night of a party in Camp Hill, Southampton, two days or so before his death.

"I spoke to him and we talked about general things...girls and things like that," he said.

Following the tape being played, the jury was handed a copy of a letter from the law firm representing Anderson, Christopher Francis Forrest. Entitled "notice of alibi", the letter told the jury that Anderson's alibi for the night of December 26, 2007 is that he was with Raymond Darrell at his Wellington Hill, St. George's residence, between 8.45 p.m and approximately 10 p.m.

There was no further explanation, apart from Chief Justice Richard Ground telling the jurors that this could be done under the Evidence Act.

Earlier in the day's proceedings, the court heard from Detective Constable Warren Bundy how he visited Anderson at Wheels Cycles, Front Street, on January 11, 2008. The visit was part of an investigation into the shooting of Jakai Harford in the early hours of Christmas Day. Anderson told the detective he was at a party in Camp Hill, Southampton on the night Mr. Harford got shot, but he did not see anything.

Detective Constable Bundy told the jury that on February 28 he attended Bradshaw and Ms Anderson's address in Curving Avenue, Pembroke, Anderson was arrested at the scene, and later that day he was interviewed by the Police. The officer described this, and further interviews on February 29 and March 1 as "no comment" interviews.

Detective Bundy also told the jury that Bradshaw was arrested at Hamilton Police Station on March 3, 2008. Both defendants appeared in court the next day to be charged and were then escorted to Westgate Correctional Facility.

The case continues.