–recounts his involvement in the gruesome killings

CLEBERT Recce, called “Chi-Chi”, one of five men fingered in the Bartica Massacre, took the stand Thursday, in spite of objections from the defence, and the submissions not being upheld by the judge.Reece, who early into the trial plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter, told the court when led by State Prosecutor, Diana Kaulesar that after taking a call from his mother in February 2008 to discuss his living arrangements, he reported to the Brickdam Police Station.
In his evidence-in-chief, Reece told the court that from the station, he was taken by police vehicle to a house in Kitty where “an old jail-man” lived, and the ranks who accompanied him conducted a search of the premises.
That done, Reece related, he was taken back to Brickdam Police Station, where he was advised that he should report there every day.
Reece said that because of this obligation, he began living by his “child mother” in the city, but went to see his mother on Mother’s Day. That is how he came to catch up with his cousin and former co-accused, Michael Caesar, called “Capone”, and be in possession of his cell-phone number.
He told the court that following that chance meeting with “Capone”, he started receiving phone calls from one “Sad Man”. After one of those calls, he said, when he looked outside, he saw a car; and in it were five men, all armed with guns, right down to the driver.
Reece conceded accompanying the men to Parika, where they met two others and a boat builder, and together they waited for the tide to rise before taking a boat around to the Parika Stelling.
He would then give a blow-by-blow account of how the gang spent the night, from the time they left Parika by boat for Tiger Bay, here in the city, right down to their meeting with first Dennis Williams, called “Anaconda”, and later “Sad Man”, “Small Man”, “Chung Bai”, “Mud Up”, Michael Caesar, “Magic”, and “Kussum” all the way up in Ann’s Grove, on the East Coast Demerara.
He also regaled the court with how “Sad Man”, another alias by which the mastermind, Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins, was known, almost ended his life in the vicinity of Eve Leary on the way back to Parika, just because the boat developed engine trouble. But for the intervention of “Magic’, he said, he would have been a goner.
But engine trouble would again dog them on the way to Bartica the night before the massacre, when they were forced to live rough until the boat could be repaired.
He said that when they got to Bartica, he wasn’t allowed to get off the vessel, but was rather left in the care of two armed men while the rest of the gang went about their business.
When led by State Prosecutor Kaulesar, Reece identified Mark Royden Williams and Dennis Williams, who were both in the courtroom, as being the gang members known as “Small Man” and “Anaconda” respectively.
He said it was “Sad Man” who killed the five men on the Banks DIH boat moored at the Bartica Stelling; he recalled that they were told to lie face down on the boat before being shot at the back of the head with a .45 handgun. He was standing on the boat’s bow when it happened, Reece said.
He also told the court that in all there were six men on the boat, but again, “Magic” saved the day by allowing him to escape.
He himself would eventually manage to escape “Sad Man” and the gang’s clutches days later by telling them he wanted to ease his bowels. This was after some seven attempts, he said.
He will be called upon to testify again today at 09:00hrs when the trail resumes.