A man accused of murder urged police to check his grandmother’s phone after he was arrested, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Acting Detective Inspector Anneka Donawa said that after Kiari Tucker was arrested on November 4, 2017, he was taken to the Hamilton Police Station.

In CCTV footage shown to the jury, Mr Tucker is seen being walked into the custody area at the police station and speaking with officers.

Ms Donawa said that, during the conversation, Mr Tucker told officers to look at his grandmother’s phone.

In a section of the video, Ms Donawa said Mr Tucker is heard to say: “I was home. You should see in the messages so I can hurry up and get out of here.”

As the footage continued, Mr Tucker is seen to strip off his shirt, pants and shoes in the custody area, which Ms Donawa said he did without being told to do so.

“He started taking off his clothes outside in the open area where he is not supposed to,” she said. “He is supposed to wait and be escorted into the room, but he took his clothes and threw them down.”

Ms Donawa is then seen to put on a pair of gloves and pick up the items, placing the shirt and jeans into paper bags and carrying them and the shoes into the medical examination room.

She told the court she took a DNA sample from the defendant and swabbed his hands and clothing, including his black shoes, for gunshot residue.

Ms Donawa said she also swabbed the table where she had swabbed the other items, to serve as a control.

Mr Tucker, 27, has denied the November 3, 2017, murder of Morlan Steede, 35, as well as the use of a firearm to commit an indictable offence.

Earlier in the trial, the Supreme Court was shown CCTV footage from the evening of the murder which showed a man in a white shirt being chased down One Way Deepdale in Pembroke by a figure dressed in black, with flashes of light seen coming from the pursuer’s outstretched arm.

Mr Tucker was arrested the following day after police discovered him under a pile of clothing in a bedroom closet.

The court also heard that swabs taken from Mr Tucker’s hands revealed particles characteristic of gunshot residue.

Additional particles were discovered on a pair of jeans, a red and black handkerchief and a black shoe seized as part of the investigation.

As the trial continued yesterday Bernadette Lawrence told the court that on November 3, 2017, she went to the scene of the shooting as part of the vulnerable person’s unit of the serious crime department.

She said she arrived on Parsons Road at about 11.55pm and was involved in a search for evidence.

Ms Lawrence said she searched the parking area of a nearby church and a portion of One Way Deepdale, but did not handle any evidence.

She told the court that she left the area at about 2am on November 4.

Ms Lawrence said she later sought and obtained a firearms warrant for the residence of Mr Tucker, along with several other properties.

That same afternoon, she told the court that she and other officers went to Mr Tucker’s apartment in Warwick to execute the warrant.

She told the court that while the warrant was for an apartment on the northern side of the building, officers had gone into the southern apartment to carry out a search under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

Ms Lawrence said the occupant of the southern apartment indicated that she was Mr Tucker’s godmother and directed the officers to a flip phone, which was seized by the officers.

At the northern apartment, the officer said both the defendant’s mother and grandmother were present.

“We were directed by the grandmother to a back bedroom,” she said.

Ms Lawrence said another officer, Jeffrey Blaire, collected several items for seizure including bed sheets and items of clothing before they were sealed in brown paper bags.

Among the items collected were a pair of jeans and a red and black handkerchief.

Under cross-examination, Ms Lawrence said that while speaking with Mr Tucker’s family, his grandmother had shown her the call log on her phone, specifically pointing out a call which took place at 11.08pm.

The trial continues.

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