A former friend of alleged murderer Wolda Gardner told the Supreme Court the defendant admitted ordering the shooting that killed George Lynch.

Michael Flood told the court that during an altercation in a truck in 2011, Mr Gardner threatened to make him “disappear” — and claimed that he had done it before.

Mr Gardner, 34, and Rickai Dickinson, 29, have both denied the premeditated murder of Mr Lynch, a 40-year-old Jamaican national who was gunned down in his neighbour’s yard in Hamilton Parish on May 5, 2010. They further deny using a firearm to commit the offence.

Prosecutors allege Mr Gardner ordered the shooting and that Mr Dickinson was directly involved the attack itself.

On Tuesday, the court saw recorded police statements from Philmore Phinn and Kevin Simons, who were drinking with Mr Lynch in Mr Phinn’s front yard on the evening of the shooting.

They said they became nervous after Mr Simons noticed a black bike with two riders acting suspiciously. Mr Phinn and Mr Simons went inside their respective homes to arm themselves and seconds later heard a single gunshot from outside. When they emerged, they discovered that Mr Lynch had been shot. The victim was rushed to hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.

As the trial continued yesterday, the court heard evidence from Mr Flood, who said he became friends with Mr Gardner after he moved to St George’s in 2008. Mr Flood said the pair became closer after he allowed Mr Gardner to housesit for him when the defendant had nowhere to go.

“He was very appreciative,” Mr Flood said. “I started doing things for him. Going making little drop offs, collecting money, going and getting him food. He used my fiance’s car quite a bit and at the time I had a rental bike which he would use frequently.”

When Mr Flood started a new job in 2011, he said he convinced his employer to hire Mr Gardner as well, and the pair spent several months painting at the Tynes Bay Waste-to-Energy facility.

He told the court that one Saturday the pair had gone to lunch in Hamilton after working in Devonshire when they got into an argument over something Mr Flood said he couldn’t remember. The men both calmed down and began to drive towards St George’s, but as they approached Flatts Village, Mr Flood said something that offended Mr Gardner, who allegedly punched him in the face.

“Then he told me he could make me disappear right now,” Mr Flood said. “I said everyone knows that you’re with me right now so that would be a pretty hard thing to do, which further upset him.

“He proceeded to tell me that he has had people shot before. He said he was responsible for the shooting in Hamilton Parish. The shooting I’m referring to is the shooting [in which] Lynch got shot. That he had ordered that to happen, that he could make anything happen. He didn’t necessarily have to be the one to do it.”

During the conversation, he claimed Mr Gardner told him who he had told to carry out the shooting, both of whom he knew to be St George’s residents. Mr Gardner also said that the target was actually Tamasgan Furbert, who the court previously heard lived in the same building as Mr Phinn.

“I was extremely shocked. Scared,” Mr Flood said. “I realised that threat was very much real. After that we didn’t speak and I refused to go to work. I played up that my back was messed up.”

Mr Flood also alleged he had seen Mr Gardner with a gun and that the defendant had in the past hidden it on his property.

“He would bring the gun to work at Tyne’s Bay because of how close it was to Parkside,” Mr Flood said. “It was closer than we would have liked to Parkside and Middletown. We worked in a high lift for a period of time. He was pretty vulnerable up there.”

In the days following their falling out, Mr Flood said Mr Gardner would show up at his house to see if he was going to work. On one occasion around a week after the altercation, he claimed Mr Gardner came to his house with the pistol.

“He was very upset,” Mr Flood said. “He said that he could make things happen, that he has made things happen and obviously I knew what he was referring to. He was talking about the Lynch killing.”

He said the incident terrified himself and his fiance and he decided he could no longer live in St George’s. He told the court he flew to the United States, where he went through rehab for alcohol and crack-cocaine abuse, and only returned to Bermuda once his family was ready to move out of the east end.

The trial is set to resume this morning.