A man accused of murdering Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins in a gangland revenge attack told a jury: “I did not shoot Yankee.”David Cox, 31, insisted he is not a gang member, despite his “42” tattoo, and that he spent the night in question with friends in Hamilton Parish.Prosecutors allege Mr Cox was one of two men who shot Mr Rawlins, 47, at the Spinning Wheel nightclub on Court Street, Pembroke, in the early hours of August 9, 2010.They have suggested that Mr Cox, an alleged member of the 42 gang, shot Mr Rawlins, an associate of rivals Parkside, in revenge for the shooting of Mr Cox’s friend Julian Washington earlier that night.Yesterday, however, Mr Cox said he hung out at the Mid Atlantic Boat Club on North Shore Road, Devonshire until Mr Washington got shot and injured around 11.45pm on August 8.Mr Cox said he then left the club by car as he flagged down a man who was driving by and got a lift with him to Claytown, Hamilton Parish.The jury has heard evidence that Mr Rawlins was murdered less than an hour after the Washington shooting, at 12.23am on August 9.According to Mr Cox, after his friend dropped him in Claytown he walked to a different friend’s house before going to the home of a girl he’d met at the boat club.He saw another male friend on the way there.Then, he said, he spent the night at the girl’s house until he heard police were looking for him and he turned himself in to Hamilton Police Station in the morning.Defence lawyer John Perry QC asked Mr Cox: “You’re under oath. Do you recognise the seriousness of the oath? Face the jury please. Did you kill Mr Rawlins?”“No,” replied the accused man, facing the jury as instructed. “I did not kill Yankee Rawlins.”He declined an invitation from his lawyer to name the various people he’d spent time with after leaving the boat club that night. “I’m not trying to get them involved in something,” he explained.However, Mr Perry later called a man named Andre Minors, 46, as a defence witness.Mr Minors said he knew the accused man only as “David”. He explained he gave him a ride in his car from the boat club to Claytown after he flagged him down and asked for one. Mr Minors said he dropped Mr Cox in Claytown just before, or just after midnight on the night of August 8. “Maybe about five to,” he estimated.He said the name David Cox did not mean anything to him and he did not know the accused man apart from having given him a ride that night. Mr Minors admitted to a number of previous criminal convictions but denied any association with Bermuda’s gangs. He agreed with prosecutor Cindy Clarke he did not know what happened to Mr Cox after he dropped him off.According to evidence on Monday from police gang expert Sgt Alexander Rollin, Mr Cox and Mr Washington are both members of the 42 gang and the boat club is a gang hangout. Prosecutors say Parkside associate Mr Rawlins was murdered in revenge by the 42 gang for the attack on their member Mr Washington. When he was cross-examined about this by prosecutor Ms Clarke, Mr Cox stated: “I’m not a gang member.”He agreed with the prosecutor that he visited the gang’s St Monica’s Road area “just about every day” and has a 42 tattoo on his arm.He denied the tattoo is “to represent a gang” but actually represents “the area”. He also told the prosecutor: “A lot of people call me 42. It’s just what they call me.”He denied Mr Washington is a member of 42, and denied the venue is known as a hang out for gang members, insisting: “Not just 42 hangs out down boat club.”He denied having friends in the gang, saying: “I try not to keep many friends” and insisted: “I did not shoot Yankee in revenge for Julian Washington.”He refuted the prosecutor’s suggestion that 42 and Parkside are embroiled in “a war”, telling her there have been “little fights here and there”.He admitted four of his friends, Kenwandee Robinson, Shane Minors, Perry Puckerin and Kumi Harford have all been shot dead. “I don’t know who shot ‘em. So I can’t say it’s Parkside who shot ‘em. That would be an assumption,” he said.Mr Cox’s DNA was found, together with gunshot residue, on a latex glove found in trash at a home in an area described by police as the 42 gang’s neighbourhood. Mr Cox told the jury he’d worn a pair of latex gloves in the week before the shooting when he was fixing a bike there.His DNA was also found, together with gunshot residue, on a baseball cap lying in the road outside Spinning Wheel after the murder.Ms Clarke suggested this was because he had worn it under the hood of a rain jacket which concealed his face as he shot Mr Rawlins. “I cannot say if that was my hat [but] I did not wear that hat on Court Street,” replied Mr Cox.When the prosecutor asked if he had ever fired a gun, or been present when someone else had fired one, Mr Cox said he never had. “I did not have that gun. I did not shoot Yankee,” he insisted.Mr Cox also revealed during his evidence that he has spent time in custody before. He said he was incarcerated during 2010 and did not get out until after Cup Match in July of that year. He also stated that he has been in custody since he was arrested in connection with the Rawlins murder on August 2010.