and conversing with some friends just before he was shot in the face, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

And moments after he had been shot, he ran out the back door of a home on 27 Curving Avenue and Sheldon Franks hit him with a stick, causing him to bend over.

But Caines managed to jump over a wall and run away although Franks pursued him as he fled.

Crown witness Anthony Leroy Brown made these statements in response to questions from Attorney General Elliott Mottley.

Brown's testimony came on the third day of the murder trial of Franks and Teiko Furbert.

Franks 32, of Dundonald Street, Pembroke and Furbert, 25, of Rocklands Estate, Warwick, deny charges of murdering Caines on July 6, 1996.

The Crown alleges that Franks and Furbert murdered Caines when a bullet was fired through a rear door into a home on 27 Curving Avenue.

Brown said that he was at the house with several other people including Caines, Sharon Davis, Denice Evans and Ronald Dillas.

And they were all smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine and drinking Scotch and Elephant beer over a two or three hour period.

By the time they heard a shot some time after 9 p.m., Brown said they were all conversing.

Evans was seated on Caines' right and Brown was seated opposite the deceased in the house.

After he was hit, Brown said Caines began to bleed from his face and both Evans and Davis ran out the back door toward Middletown Lane.

Brown said that he went outside after Caines had left the house and that was when he saw Franks who had come up from the rear and hit Caines with a stick.

Responding to questions from Franks' lawyer Mark Pettingill, Brown denied that the building on 27 Curving Avenue was a "crack house''.

Moreover, Brown admitted that in his Police statement he said that Franks was not carrying a stick when he saw him outside after Caines had been shot.

Romond Douglas, meanwhile, told the court that he saw Franks ride into an alley that led to the house on 27 Curving Avenue sometime around 9 p.m. on July 6, 1996.

At the time, Douglas said Franks beeped the cycle's horn as he passed his location at the entrance to the alley. Douglas said he was seated on a motorcycle conversing with another man called Zico Hewey.

Douglas said he also saw Furbert sitting on some steps just off of the alley leading to the house on 27 Curving Avenue and they exchanged greetings.

However, Douglas said he was just conversing with Hewey about "girls and sex'' and finishing off "a spliff'' (a marijuana cigarette).

Some 15 to 20 minutes later, he heard a loud bang, he said.

"I didn't know exactly what it was at the time,'' Douglas told the court. "I guessed it was a gun shot. That was my reaction at the time.'' Douglas said he "glimpsed'' backward and saw that Franks' cycle was still parked in the alley but he saw no-one else.

And since he was already preparing to leave, he just rode off and went to his girlfriend's house in St. George's.

"I should have went there from jump (the beginning),'' he continued. "If I had I wouldn't have been caught up in all this mess.'' Denice Evans, who was in the house with Caines when he was shot, said she went to call an ambulance after she saw all the blood.

She said that she saw Furbert on a pedal cycle to the left of the alley when she went outside, but she could not remember where Franks was.

A few moments later, when she was on her way to her aunt's house to call for help, she said she remembered seeing Franks.

Evans said Det. Con. Kevin Christopher came onto the scene and she took him into the house on 27 Curving Avenue but Caines had already left.

So she took the Police detective to Caines' mother's home on Union Street where she found him seated in a chair with his mother and brother trying to assist him.

The case continues this morning before Puisne Judge Richard Ground.

Charlene Scott is assisting Mr. Mottley. Archie Warner and Renee Foggo appear for Furbert.