The defence lawyer for murder-accused Davin Providence grilled a senior detective on the handling of the investigation as the prosecution’s case came to a close.

Charles Richardson accused Detective Chief Inspector Jason Smith of making unfair suggestions to his client during a police interview in June 2016.

He also said that Mr Smith had failed to follow up on tips offered by Mr Providence during his interview, and instead settled on him as the primary suspect.

Mr Smith hit back by saying: “I was challenging him.”

Mr Providence has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jevon Daniels on an unknown date between May 13 and June 17, 2016.

Mr Daniels, a father of one, had been sharing an apartment with the accused.

Mr Providence has stated that he last saw Mr Daniels on May 16 that year.

However, police believe that he could have been murdered up to three days before then.

Mr Daniels’s badly decomposed body was discovered on waste ground adjoining Ireland Rangers Field on Ireland Island, Sandys.

Mr Smith, who took the stand on Monday, told the court that Mr Providence became the main suspect in the murder investigation after he shared details about the murder that should not have been known.

He pointed towards Mr Providence’s comments about the state in which Mr Daniels’s body was found, which included Mr Providence falsely mentioning that the body was “chopped up”.

Mr Smith added that Mr Daniels was last seen alive at Mr Providence’s Sandys home before the two men got into a “fight”.

He said that Mr Providence also had access to the black trash bags used to dispose of the body.

But Mr Richardson said that the information Mr Providence had given was false, adding that police knew that the body was not “chopped up”, as suggested.

He added that the “fight” between the two former housemates was not a fight at all, but a mild argument.

Mr Richardson explained that Mr Daniels came to the Sandys apartment “drunk and aggressive” and that Mr Providence refused to let him in, instead leaving a pillow and blanket outside for Mr Daniels.

He also reminded Mr Smith that his client suggested that he talk to his boss, Kenneth Faries — only to not follow up with this suggestion until days later.

Mr Richardson instead accused Mr Smith of “shooting from the hip” to attempt to find a lead in the investigation.

But Mr Smith said: “As you can appreciate, in an investigation like this, there are a lot of moving parts.”

The trial, before Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe, continues.

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