One of the trio accused of murdering Matthew Clarke blamed the other two in taped Police interviews played to a jury yesterday.

Vernon Simons, 24, Shannon Tucker, 32, and Kyle Sousa, 18, are jointly charged with stabbing and battering Mr. Clarke at his home in North Shore Road, Pembroke, on April 9 last year.

They are alleged to have travelled to the scene together in Tucker's blue work truck.

Prosecutors have suggested to the jury that at least two of the men may have inflicted the wounds, and Tucker who employed Simons as a construction worker may have been the "boss" in respect of the crime.

Simons and Sousa are further alleged to have dropped a bag with a metal bar used in the killing into a pond, showered and disposed of their clothes afterwards.

All three deny murder.

Tucker, of Middle Road, Southampton, was arrested on suspicion of murder around five hours after Mr. Clarke, 31, was found dead around 3.30 p.m.

He participated in a series of taped interviews on April 12, which were played to the Supreme Court trial yesterday.

In them, Tucker suggested Mr. Clarke and Simons were responsible for importing cannabis and ecstasy found in machine parts shipped to him from the US for his construction business.

Both Tucker and Simons were arrested when Police found the drug shipment, and were on bail over that matter at the time of the murder.

Both attended Hamilton Police Station on the afternoon of the incident Tucker at 3 p.m. and Simons around 5.30 p.m.

Tucker told Police he and Mr. Clarke were good friends of long standing.

"We guys have a wonderful relationship. Like I said, we was friends, like over 15 years. We guys done everything together, you know, went partying, went out late nights, got home when the sun came up. Captain's and Swinging Doors was our favourite place."

However, he claimed Mr. Clarke had admitted his and Simons' responsibility for the drug plot to him prior to his death.

Mr. Clarke allegedly told Tucker he was trying to get Simons to take the fall for it and pay him off for that.

Tucker acknowledged that Mr. Clarke had not been arrested at the time of his death over the drug shipment.

In the tapes, he denied Police suggestions that he had paid Sousa and Simons to kill Mr. Clarke in some way relating to that drug issue. Tucker made a number of suggestions that Mr. Clarke was in trouble with others over drugs.

He claimed that a shadowy Jamaican figure he met in Bermuda in the months before Mr. Clarke died told him Mr. Clarke owed him money.

An equally anonymous man he met while on vacation in Philadelphia also claimed Mr. Clarke owed money over a New York drug deal.

Tucker speculated during the Police interviews that Mr. Clarke's drug involvement had in some way led to his death. He went on to express his belief that Simons and Sousa carried out the killing while he was away answering his Police bail.

He said the reason for this belief is that he left his truck at Simons' house in North Street, Pembroke, while he was at the Police station meeting his bail that afternoon.

He claimed that he later returned to find that the men had cleaned the inside of the vehicle for him and changed their clothes.

Asked for a full account of his movements on the day of the murder, Tucker told the Police he had visited Mr. Clarke that morning.

He said they'd had a good time looking at women on the Internet together but Mr. Clarke was not his usual self and appeared to have something on his mind.

Tucker gave the detectives various accounts of his movements over the rest of that day, changing his versions of where he'd been at what time on multiple occasions. However, he denied having anything to do with the killing, repeating that he was friends with Mr. Clarke at the time of his death.

The case continues.