Lawyers for alleged murderer Gernell Darrell have thrown up a series of "smokescreens" to hide his guilt, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

Summing up the Crown case, Director of Public Prosecutions Khamisi Tokunbo said Darrell had initially lied about the attack on homeless George Kelly on May 31 last year because he was guilty.

Darrell, 23, did not go into the witness box and his lawyers Mark Pettingill and Larry Mussenden offered no evidence for the defence yesterday.

Mr. Kelly, 42, stabbed Darrell in the chest with a screwdriver at the bus station in Hamilton and the accused admitted that within seconds he stabbed him back with a knife he says the deceased dropped.

Mr. Kelly's body was found the following morning at the car park next to the Silver Spoon restaurant in Victoria Street clutching a screwdriver with traces of Darrell's blood on the tip.

He died of a single stab wound to the heart.

The Crown claims the fatal attack took place at the taxi rank in Church Street minutes after the initial fight, but Darrell, who denies murder, told detectives he stabbed Mr. Kelly at the bus station immediately after he himself had been stabbed.

Mr. Tokunbo said Darrell could not claim self-defence because the fatal attack took place minutes after the initial stabbing, nor could he claim he was provoked by Mr. Kelly.

He said it was human nature that the Crown's three witnesses at the taxi rank gave varied accounts of the stabbing.

"They (the defence) have no defence in law.

"In the absence of a legal defence, its a smokescreen defence," said Mr. Tokunbo.

"It is a smokescreen to play on the human frailties we have.

"We never heard the defence in cross-examination say Tubs (Darrell's nickname) never came to the taxi rank'.

"They never said he didn't have a knife in his hand because that was not their case.

"It was a smokescreen, the throwing up of dust to deliberately distract you."

There was evidence that Darrell's friend Wayne Christopher, who took the accused to hospital on the night of the stabbing, went looking for Mr. Kelly armed with a machete later that night.

"They are implicitly suggesting that it was Wayne Christopher who stabbed the deceased.

"They have turned on Wayne Christopher to suggest Wayne Christopher was the murderer.

"That's desperate, and it's low, too."

The defence were also trying to implicate Cannoth Roberts, another initial suspect, even though Darrell admitted in five or six cautioned statements to stabbing Mr. Kelly.

"The defence case is not that these admissions by the defendant were lies.

"They have no defence in law, it's all smokescreen," said Mr. Tokunbo.

"They say the defendant was in hospital at 9 p.m. and could not be in the bus station, and Detective Sergeant (Jerome) Laws delivers a fatal blow showing (on closed circuit television camera stills) that he was there at 9.15 p.m."

He said taxi driver Rudolph Bean got it wrong when he said the blow Darrell landed on Mr. Kelly in Church Street was to his neck.

Darrell didn't have a self-defence argument because there was no evidence that he delivered a pre-emptive strike to stop Mr. Kelly stabbing him again, said Mr. Tokunbo.

"The big problem is that they don't put that to any of the witnesses because there is no evidence," continued Mr. Tokunbo.

Mr. Kelly's body was found in the car park next to a partially eaten Kentucky Fried Chicken meal and some empty miniatures of rum.

But there was no evidence he drank the alcohol as there were no prints on the bottles, or that he ate the meal at the car park.

Darrell, of Swansbay Hill, Pembroke, initially told Police he had been stabbed by an unknown young man with long plats and that he didn't defend himself.

"It's significant. It's critical. He's lying. Why?

"We say he was deliberately lying to cover himself.

"We say these lies are evidence of his guilt.

"We cannot find any innocent reason for him lying.

"The real issue in this case is 'was he stabbed in the bus terminal or the taxi rank?'

"At the end of the day it doesn't matter because he (Darrell) admits he stabbed him.

"Going after him to stab him can't be self-defence.

"What he was doing was getting revenge, it's an eye for an eye.

"He says he was angry and he wanted to get even.

"That's not self-defence."

The Crown produced evidence that Darrell began slapping Mr. Kelly at the bus station after accusing him of beating up his (the deceased's) girlfriend.

A witness said the attack stopped when Mr. Kelly stabbed Darrell in the chest with a screwdriver.

"There is no evidence the deceased provoked him.

"The evidence is that he is the aggressor.

"If anyone was acting in self-defence it was the deceased," said Mr. Tokunbo.

"A 42-year-old man is approached and harassed by a man half his age.

"The deceased is found with a screwdriver in his hand.

"The defendant was the aggressor from start to finish."

Mr. Tokunbo will continue his summing up to the jury and Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons today followed by Mr. Pettingill.