Robert Blair Tucker hotly denied any involvement in the murder of American Stanley Lee and revealed that a Narcotics detective warned him to never reveal her and other officers' drugs connections to him.

Tucker (pictured), confident on the stand despite heavy grilling from Crown counsel Juan Wolffe and a co-accused's lawyer Liz Christopher, lobbed several shocking answers throughout the day in the marathon Lagoon Park murder case.

He said his American cousin, Ralph Richardson, went with him to the isolated park to confirm that Mr. Lee had been killed and found him next to his cycle in a clearing.

Tucker described the body with wounds to the chest, and said there was no blood in the clearing, before saying Mr. Richardson moved the body into trees some distance off.

Tucker, Terranz (Monster) Smith and James (Spook) Dill deny killing the mysterious ex-con in Lagoon Park, Ireland Island South on July 28, 2001 in what prosecutors believe was over money and a bad supply of drugs the quartet had imported.

Frankly admitting his expertise at importing cocaine and heroin, Tucker said he only “implicated” himself in his statements after heavy questioning by detectives in the days after Smith revealed the existence of the body on August 9.

Tucker said he became suspicious of Dill's actions on the evening of July 28 and confronted him, only to be told that Mr. Lee (also known as Sean Russells) was dead. He added that Smith only found out about it the next day.

Tucker said: “See we're talking about Mr. Aggressive here, Terry Maxwell. He's there with the butcher block from my house and he's showing me Spook's statement and Spook's saying all these things about me and he's saying ‘you stabbed him with the knife, didn't you' over and over and I just said yeah - whatever.

“When I said in the statement (of August 13) ‘I had a part in his death', I was saying ‘what more do you want me to say?', it was late after 11.30 at night, that's it,” Tucker continued.

Earlier, after Mr. Wolffe had accused Tucker of “making things up on the fly”, he challenged Tucker on why his lawyer, Larry Scott, did not cross-examine Det. Sgt. Maxwell on the issue. Several jurors stifled laughter with Tucker's response.

Mr. Wolffe said: “Your lawyer never put this exchange to Mr. Maxwell and that's because…”

“I'm making this up on the fly?” Tucker interjected with a nod and a wry smile.

“You read my mind,” Mr. Wolffe replied, to more muffled laughs and smiles. “Not only do you say in that statement that you stabbed him but you were telling Police your state of mind, weren't you?”

“I said I was wide open,” Tucker replied flatly.

“You were p****d off beyond p****d off on 28th July, 2001 weren't you,” the prosecutor continued.

“Well, that's what I said in my statement,” Tucker replied.

Mr. Wolffe congratulated Tucker on his drug activity, saying “you even had certain members of the Police Service. You were pretty good, bye. Pretty good”.

“But,” Mr. Wolffe said after a dramatic pause, “they're questioning you on a decomposing body for which you were a suspect and you had your lawyer present and you never said the things you're saying today. Wouldn't it have just been easier to tell them?”

Tucker replied: “I agree it would have been easier. But I knew that there was certain things that I didn't want to say.”

Tucker told the jury that he rode as a pillion passenger on his mother's cycle with Dill riding and Mr. Lee following on his rental cycle to Sonesta Beach, Southampton to meet a contact, named “C” around noon on July 28.

After a conversation, he left the trio, and returned to his Pembroke home, he said, adding: “I knew what they were going up there (Lagoon Park) for.”

When Tucker explained that he often buried drugs in the park when making pick-ups in Dockyard, rather than carry a large amount about the Island, Mr. Wolffe commented: “That's your story, and you're sticking to it, right?”

Explaining that he wanted to protect his Police sources and runners, Tucker told his lawyer, Larry Scott, he could not tell Police that he had been to Dockyard on July 27 to pick up a drug shipment off of the Zenith cruise ship.

“See, I didn't want to tell (Det. Sgt. Terry) Maxwell who I was with. Hollister Isaacs, he had brought some drugs in and the same Police officers that do stuff for me they had arrested him. He was caught and he got off and he went back. He'd called me about some stuff and what I did was I went to some Police and asked them if they would go get it for me.

“One of the cops called me and said he knew the guy because he had arrested him. I didn't want to tell them. It sounded crazy. That's why I didn't say anything about that (July 27 trip to Dockyard).”

“After you told Sgts. Maxwell and (Sylvester) Augustine about the Police officer did anyone come to visit you? Mr. Scott asked.

“Yeah, Officer B came to see me,” Tucker said. “I was in my cell and Officer B came to me and she was like ‘look, there's certain things you can't say' and I said I wasn't going to say anything about us. Again, it's certain things I didn't want to tell Police at the time. I wasn't quite prepared to deal with that stuff.”

“In your evidence you have steered away from certain information about Police,” Mr. Scott asked.

“Why? Because, well, I mean...” Tucker fumbled before saying: “Alright. Alright, Officer A?, he had to get paid for letting Humphries (the man who imported Mr. Lee's cocaine) through. He went away on the weekend of the 28th and got back on the Monday. Officer A came up to my house and we had a discussion.

“I said ‘look, something happened' and told him and he told me to leave the body exactly where it is.

“Don't touch it, don't tell anybody where it is. I didn't want to tell Police that. They would have had to question him, a whole lot of stuff would have come out of that.”

During tough questioning by Ms Christopher, Tucker hotly denied plying Dill with drugs, painting a complicated relationship of paying the admitted addict with quarter ounces of cocaine for work.

“Fifties? You're saying I paid James Dill in 50s (of cocaine)?” Tucker said raising his voice before explaining that a “50” is the street slang for $50 worth of crack cocaine. “No! I never gave James Dill a 50 in my life. A 50? Huh!

“I never gave your client a 50. A quarter is what, seven ounces of cocaine? I paid James Dill quarters. Your client had ounces of cocaine,” he said, flashing a look over her shoulder at Dill. “Not for him to sell, for his personal use. He was a good friend of mine. I've been good to your client. I gave your client thousands of dollars worth of cocaine.

“I'd give him some drugs to cook and to sell and guess what, he'd come back and sometimes the money would be correct. And you know what? You're saying I'm this big bad drug dealer, I had found a rehabilitation place in Virginia and it would cost me $5,000 a month and James Dill said he didn't want to go.

“He'd be over Belco washing cars and I'd go and get him and offer him work around my house. I've been very good to your client, Ms Christopher!”

And Tucker also reacted angrily when Ms Christopher suggested he stabbed Mr. Lee in the back to “incapacitate” him.

After denying that he even stabbed Mr. Lee, Tucker said: “I recall (Government Forensic Pathologist) Dr. (John) Obafunwa said from the knife wound to the back, he would have got up and ran.

“If I had stabbed Sean Russells in the back, I would not be here on the stand! We're talking about a man who was, what, six (feet) nine, 270 pounds. No, I didn't stab Sean Russells.”

The trial continues this morning before Acting Chief Justice Norma Wade Miller.