Witness Raymond Raynor broke down yesterday as he told Supreme Court that he never expected a conflict between his best friend and another friend to escalate.

He was testifying on the first day of the murder trial of 34-year-old Randy Hilton Burgess, of St. David's, who denies killing Dean Antoine Young on October 9 last year. The case, which prosecutor Khamisi Tokunbo characterised as a "love triangle gone bad'', centres around the knife attack by Burgess on Mr. Young while Burgess' girlfriend Trina Todd looked on.

Mr. Tokunbo, Director of Public Prosecutions, is the lead prosecutor. He is assisted by Crown Counsel Charmaine Smith while Mark Pettingill represents Burgess.

Mr. Young died as a result of internal bleeding to the aorta. Mr. Tokunbo said there were 23 wounds to his body, ten of which are what expert witnesses will call "defence'' wounds.

"I used to go by his job and see him about my car and he would say `what's wrong with my mate' meaning Dean,'' said Mr. Raynor.

"Chicken (Burgess) used to say `why he keeps calling down the house'. Things like `Dean don't know me. I'll f**k Dean up'.'' Fighting back tears, Mr. Raynor continued: "I would just listen to him. I didn't go back to Dean with it because I didn't want to start conflict. He seemed calm about it when he was telling me. There wasn't no type of anger to my knowledge. But I feel that he meant it. I used to see him up at Captain's Lounge, and he would come up to me and say `what's wrong with him? He's like a p***y'.

"I would just play it off,'' Mr. Raynor said. "Dean was the type of guy who, if he heard stuff like that, he would go and approach him. I didn't want that.'' Under cross examination by defence lawyer Mark Pettingill, Mr. Raynor said he was angry at Burgess.

But he denied talking with Burgess on Court Street some time last year in which he was told of threats Mr. Young was making toward Burgess.

When asked about the potential of a fight between the two men, Mr. Raynor said: "I would say that he (Burgess) would never beat Dean. I just didn't want to see them fight. Fist to fist? Yes, Dean would win.'' Another friend, Blaine Outerbridge said Burgess was upset at Ms Todd's insistence he leave whenever Mr. Young was to pick up their four-year-old child for whom he had visitation rights.

"He spoke to me about it. There was a particular time when Dean was coming to pick up his son and he had to leave,'' he said. "He was like, why should he have to leave. He was saying he's the boyfriend. Like why? This was about four weeks before the incident.'' Accused: Randy Burgess