Kevin Smith threatened to crash car and kill us all, Ruddock tells court

Murder accused Andre Ruddock on Monday claimed that his now-deceased pastor, Kevin Smith, wanted him to take the blame for the October 17, 2021 murder of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner. But when he insisted that he would not, an argument developed between both of them in a police service vehicle which was taking them to Kingston from Montego Bay and the pastor threatened to crash the car and kill them all. According to Ruddock, because of the threat, he was taken from the vehicle, in which three members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force were also travelling, and placed in a different police car, which was also destined for Kingston for both men to be charged. “Kevin Smith said, ‘Do not tell anyone I killed Taneka Gardner and Michael Brown,’ ” Ruddock, who is on trial for Gardner’s murder, testified in the Home Circuit Court, downtown Kingston.

“Constable Irons said, ‘Yes, bwoy, tell dem wah happen. ’ I said to him that I was not going to take his charge and mi a go tell dem what happened. He wanted me to take his charge and everything to slide under the carpet, so me go to prison and him go free,” the accused man told the court. Ruddock said a disagreement developed between him and the pastor when the car reached the vicinity of Blue Diamond Shopping Mall in St James. “I was seated in the middle at the back. Kevin Smith was seated beside me to my left. [Constable] Orlando Irons was to my right. Kevin Smith said if I ever speak and tell anybody who murdered the people at the church he was going to crash the car and murder the whole of us,” Ruddock said. “I was removed from that car when I reached Falmouth and placed in another car. Orlando Irons said Kevin Smith was threatening me so he was going to tell the investigating officer to remove me out of the car. Kevin Smith was…