A man accused of smuggling drugs maintained that he lied to police on the advice of a lawyer — but accepted he had not mentioned this when he previously stood trial for the same offence.

Alexta Gill denied in the Supreme Court that he was lying about Bruce Swan, his legal counsel during his police interviews, in an effort to explain the story he now claims he made up.

He accepted that he did not allege that Mr Swan had told him to lie in either the first trial for the matter or in a defence statement prepared for the first trial, but said that it had been put to Mr Swan that he had not given proper legal advice.

“Not giving me proper advice and telling me to lie are the same thing,” he said.

Mr Gill also claimed that he had not seen the defence statement, which was submitted to the Supreme Court by Susan Mulligan, his lawyer in the first trial.

Asked in re-examination what he intended the police to do in response to the story he gave them, in which he claimed he was pressured into bringing a suitcase into Bermuda for someone named “Andre”, he said he had assumed they would look into it.

“I thought they would conduct an investigation and when they did the investigation would find that there was no Andre,” he said.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe subsequently asked Mr Gill if he wanted the police to investigate something that he knew was a lie, to which he said ‘yes’.

Mr Gill, a 31-year-old Guyanese national, has denied allegations that he smuggled cannabis and liquid cocaine into Bermuda on March 4, 2024.

The court heard that Mr Gill arrived on the island with Jhordan George-Horsford on a flight from Toronto on March 2, but one of their suitcases missed the flight and arrived two days later.

A search of the bag revealed six “bricks” of plant material later confirmed to be 9,472.6 grams of cannabis, and a bottle of whiskey, which was found to contain liquid cocaine, from which 812.4g of the controlled drug was extracted.

Mr Gill was arrested and, during a police interview, said that he had agreed to bring a suitcase to the island for someone named “Andre” to clear a debt after receiving death threats.

On Monday, he told the jury that he had made up the story in an effort to get bail because he did not think officers believed his previous statements that he knew nothing about the drugs.

As the trial continued yesterday, the jury was shown a recording of CCTV footage taken from LF Wade International Airport on the evening of March 2, showing Mr Gill and Ms George-Horsford.

The footage showed the pair approach a parked taxi and place their bags in the back of it before Mr Gill appears to look and gesture in the direction of the short-term parking area.

He then puts his jacket in the back of the taxi and approaches a man in black clothing, who was walking towards him.

The men meet in the middle of the road before the man walks back towards the parking area and the defendant and Ms George-Horsford collect their bags and belongings and walk in the same direction.

The taxi driver, meanwhile, was seen to open the sliding door of the vehicle before Mr Gill’s return but the pair walked away.

Asked why he put the jacket in the taxi, the defendant said: “I thought I was going with him.”

Mr Gill said it was as he was taking off his jacket that the taxi driver had informed him that he would not be able to drive them as far as Four Ways Inn.

He said that, at the time of the comment by the taxi driver, the man in black clothing was walking towards them from the parking lot.

“He said he was a working taxi,” Mr Gill said.

While the recording showed the man walking in front of a bus, Mr Gill said he did not recall the noise of the bus.

Khadija Beddeau, for the Crown, put to Mr Gill that he entered the country not as a tourist but as a knowing drug mule, which he denied.

The trial continues

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