Shannon Tucker is a liar and a drug importer but that does not make him guilty of murdering Matthew Clarke, his lawyer told a jury yesterday.

According to prosecutors, Tucker, 33, Vernon Simons, 24, and Kyle Sousa, 18, all participated in stabbing and beating the 31-year-old songwriter to death.

Mr. Clarke's body was discovered in bed at his North Shore, Pembroke residence by his girlfriend Charlitta Spencer around 3.30 p.m. last April 9. He'd suffered 26 stab wounds and serious head injuries.

In Supreme Court evidence and Police interviews, each of the defendants blamed the others for the attack and said they were only at the scene as an innocent bystander.

Tucker said he tried to help Mr. Clarke an old friend he'd served with in the Regiment when the others attacked him over a drug importation plot gone wrong. He admitted driving them to and from the scene, helping to dispose of clothing and failing to tell the Police. Tucker told the jury this was because the other pair had threatened to harm his family and he was frightened.

He and Simons face separate charges over the shipment of ecstasy and cannabis in question. Tucker claimed Mr. Clarke was involved in the plot and Simons mounted the attack because he was furious at having to take the rap.

Tucker admitted during his testimony that he was guilty of the importation, saying Mr. Clarke promised him two pounds of weed if the drugs could be smuggled into the Island in machine parts for his construction company.

The prosecution claim Tucker and Simons committed the murder enlisting Sousa to help in the hope that having Mr. Clarke dead would make the drugs matter go away.

In his closing address yesterday, Tucker's British lawyer, Owen Davies QC, told the jury: "We say from the beginning that Shannon Tucker has himself to blame for being here (in court). Not because he's a murderer, but because he's misconducted himself from the beginning."

Mr. Davies said it was not the first time, and would not be the last, that someone had acted in an inappropriate manner after witnessing an offence, and lied to the Police. "It's not the first time, and certainly won't be the last, that a person has felt that by telling the truth, the truth wouldn't be good enough and the truth would not be believed. And one lie leads to another and that's why he's here," he added.

Mr. Davies acknowledged the "terrible tragedy" of Mr. Clarke's death, and that emotions have at times run high during the case. However, he urged the jury to take a common-sense approach to the evidence and engage in a methodical analysis of it.

This, he said, would show Tucker did not wield a weapon that day, and that it was Sousa who was armed with a knife and Simons with a metal pole.

Mr. Davies said Tucker would be guilty if not withstanding whether he wielded a weapon or nor he was involved in an attack to kill Mr. Clarke or an attempt to do him serious bodily harm. However, he claimed that Tucker had no motive, as taking Mr. Clarke out of the equation did not mean the drug investigation would stop, since he was "just not part of the picture" .

"Matthew Clarke never was a witness in the importation of drugs case. For what the Police knew, Matthew Clarke had as much to do with the importation of drugs case as you do. If Matthew Clarke was dead, what would it do for Shannon Tucker?" he asked the jury.

Mr. Davies acknowledged that evidence from Customs officer and Special Constable Roderick Masters that Tucker called him in January 2008 offering information about Mr. Clarke's alleged involvement in a drug plot "sits very uneasily" with his claim they had a good relationship at the time of the killing.

The defence lawyer said he could not supply an answer about what was going on there. However, he pointed out that this incident happened months earlier and questioned how important it really was.

He also asked why, if Tucker was in on the murder plot, he would have taken his blue work truck to the scene and parked it at Mr. Clarke's house opposite the busy Granny's Restaurant, where it was spotted.

"If you think the people were there to kill, it would take a person of extraordinary stupidity to take along this large distinctive truck. And this isn't London this is Bermuda. Everybody knows what everybody else is doing, who's driving whose truck down Blackwatch," he pointed out.

All three defendants deny murder and and the case continues.