Murder accused to jury: ‘I’m an innocent man’

M urder accused Dario Taitt told a 12-member jury he has spent more than three years in jail for a slaying he did not commit, and that he does not know who killed Jamal Clarke. “This is 41 months I in jail for something I ain’t do. I am an innocent man. I did not kill Jamal Clarke. I do not know who kill Jamal Clarke and I have nothing to do with it,” said Taitt, as he opted to give an unsworn statement from the dock of the No. 3 Supreme Court on Wednesday. Taitt, of Silver Sands, Christ Church, pleaded not guilty to murdering Jamal Clarke on May 2, 2023. He recalled that in April 2023, a few friends came by his tattoo shop. One of them had a phone and asked him to unlock it, but he told him he wasn’t a technician. The man put the phone on a ledge; they watched TV, and Taitt fell asleep. When he awoke, everyone had gone.

He continued: “A couple of days after, I was in the tattoo shop breezing again. I hear a knock on the door, so I get up and look, and it was Jamal Clarke – Bat Boy . I open the door and he tell me ‘bout them same phone. I tell he I never had no phone; that he could come in and look on the ledge and see if it there. He come in, look ‘pon the ledge [and said:] ‘Man wunna come and carry way my phone’. That time he frothing, he pull down the TV. “I wasn’t looking for nothing so, so I tell myself he [must have] gone back smoking cocaine again, ‘cause he does do a little thing, but at the end of the day that is my friend. I don’t judge he for nothin he do… I didn’t really stress ‘pon it too much. I did feel a sort of way because a man that was supposed to be my friend come by me and tell me ‘bout a phone that I don’t know nothing ‘bout; I did feel a sorta way. “Anybody that say that wouldn’t make them feel a sort o’ way will got to be a liar, but because I…