A career criminal informed detectives that his close friend was an alleged murderer because he believed he was dying, and “it felt like the right thing to do”.Randy Lightbourne told a jury he turned Derek Spalding in for shooting Shaki Crockwell because “I just wanted it off my conscience”.His allegations were first made in September 2010, when he was battling life threatening injuries from being shot himself. That was more than three years after Mr Crockwell, 25, was shot dead.Mr Spalding, 36, from Pembroke, is now on trial accused of the premeditated murder of Mr Crockwell and using a firearm to commit the killing. He denies the charges. Prosecutors say the killing stemmed from a drug debt owed by Mr Crockwell (see story on Page 2.)Taking the witness stand for the Crown yesterday, Mr Lightbourne, 45, whose nickname is Legend, said he met Mr Spalding in Westgate prison in 1997.“We were very close,” he explained, saying he had a cell phone in jail and used it to keep in touch with Mr Spalding after he was released.Mr Lightbourne met Mr Crockwell, who he called “Shak,” in Westgate in 2003.“We were very close. He used to call me ‘uncle’ and I was very close with his father, Daniel,” he said. “I used to look out for him the whole time he was in prison.”Mr Lightbourne said after Mr Crockwell was released on parole in 2005, he began to sell drugs on the outside for Mr Spalding. In late 2006, Mr Crockwell told Mr Spalding he’d lost cannabis and money he owed to him when his house was burgled.He promised to pay the money back, but failed to do so, which left Mr Spalding “very upset,” and feeling like Mr Crockwell was “trying to play him,” according to Mr Lightbourne. He said he believed Mr Crockwell and tried to intervene by speaking to him on Mr Spalding’s behalf.However, he said Mr Spalding’s anger deepened when he heard Mr Crockwell bought a new car and was wearing nice clothes. He alleged that Mr Spalding repeatedly threatened to kill Mr Crockwell, and continued to do so after he was released from jail in March 2007 and began work as a ferry operator.“He said if Shak doesn’t pay up he’s going to take him; that he was going to kill him,” he said.On May 26 2007, Mr Lightbourne was allowed out of prison to attend his sister’s wedding and met with Mr Spalding outside the reception venue. He alleged Mr Spalding opened the trunk of his car to display “a bunch of guns and about ten pounds of marijuana,” which made him nervous.He continued by saying that Mr Spalding made further threats against Mr Crockwell’s life during June and August 2007. During a conversation on the day of the murder, he alleged Mr Spalding told him: “You think I am joking? You’re going to see”.The next morning, Mr Lightbourne heard Mr Crockwell had been killed. He later met Mr Spalding on a ferry where he was working.Mr Spalding allegedly confessed that he’d arranged to meet Mr Crockwell on the Railway Trail in Devonshire on the pretext of giving him drugs to sell, then killed him.“He went up behind Shak when Shak was p*ssing. He said he called him a b*tch and shot him in the back of the head,” alleged Mr Lightbourne.“I was taken aback when he first told me.”He alleged that Mr Spalding told him he had burned the clothes he wore and buried the gun, which he described as “a twenty-two” and called “his baby”.Mr Lightbourne was released from jail in December 2008. In July 2010, he was shot in Somerset. Trial judge Carlisle Greaves noted that a man named Marico Bassett of the Money Over B*tches gang was convicted of that shooting.Mr Lightbourne told the jury: “He hit me seven times and by the grace of God I was still able to live.”However, he suffered life-threatening injuries, needed emergency surgery, and spent weeks in the Intensive Care Unit.“The doctors were saying they had done all they could for me,” said Mr Lightbourne. “Every time I was starting to get better, I was going back. I weighed under 140 pounds. I actually believed I was going to die.”At that point, he said, senior police officers came to see how he was doing and ask if he could help with their unsolved murder investigations.“I told them that I didn’t know anything about any of the unsolved murders with these gangs but I could tell them about Shak’s,” he said, explaining he wanted to get it off his conscience.Mr Lightbourne began to be cross-examined by defence lawyer Mark Pettingill late yesterday afternoon. Mr Pettingill accused him of being a “pathological liar” and “an extremely manipulative person”.Mr Lightbourne denied that, but agreed with Mr Pettingill that he’s had a “long and extensive criminal career” and associated with a lot of criminals.“I done eleven and a half years in prison. A lot of people around me were criminals,” he retorted when Mr Pettingill pressed him on that issue.The case continues.