One of three men accused of killing Matthew Clarke told Police he saw one of others do it and intervened in a vain attempt to save the victim.

In an interview conducted at his own request on March 5 this year, seven days before the murder trial began, Vernon Simons described Kyle Sousa stabbing and beating Mr. Clarke in front of him.

"I was terrified from what I witnessed," he claimed during the taped interview played to the Supreme Court trial yesterday. He also told the Police: "After he attack(sic) Matthew I actually, I honestly tried to save his life but I couldn't do so. By the time I got there it was too late."

Simons said he believed construction firm owner Shannon Tucker – who employed him as a labourer asked Sousa to commit the killing for an offer of $1,000, because Mr. Clarke, 31, framed him over a drug conspiracy.

He alleged that Sousa indicated as much the day after the killing.

"He approached me and said 'Vernon I want my money from Shannon. If not, he's going to be next.' This is a true statement I quote from Kyle that Shannon will be next to die or get murdered. I already put in my head that he will be next if he don't get paid his grand, his thousand dollars," he told the Police.

Simons, 24, from Pembroke, Sousa, 18, from Warwick stand accused along with Tucker, 32, from Southampton, of stabbing and beating Mr. Clarke to death. According to prosecutors, the victim was killed in his bed at home in North Shore Road, Pembroke, between 2.30 p.m and 3 p.m last April 9.

The three men are alleged to have travelled to the scene together in Tucker's blue work truck. At least two of the men are said to have stabbed Mr. Clarke more than 20 times and repeatedly hit him in the head with a metal bar. All three deny murder.

Yesterday, Sousa's lawyer Charles Richardson put it to Detective Constable Warren Bundy that Simons gave the Police interview implicating Sousa earlier this month because "he was seeking some kind of deal for himself." The detective said he was not aware of this.

Simons and Sousa attempted to plead guilty to being accessories after the fact to the crime before the trial began on March 13. Their pleas to this lesser charge were rejected by Mr. Field and their trial for murder, together with Tucker, began.

The jury has already heard tapes of Police interviews with Simons conducted last April after his arrest on suspicion of murder. At this time, Simons told detectives that Mr. Clarke owed money to a Jamaican man over a drug deal. This deal allegedly involved cannabis and ecstasy tablets being imported in machine parts Tucker ordered.

He spoke of his belief that Mr. Clarke was responsible for that drug shipment and had framed him and Tucker, who got arrested over it. Despite this, Simons insisted he had nothing against Mr. Clarke and did not believe Tucker did either. He suggested that Mr. Clarke was killed over the drug debt.

Changing his account of events in the more recent interview played to the jury yesterday, Simons told detectives Bundy and Windol Thorpe that Tucker proposed a 'hustle' for Kyle Sousa for $1,000 prior to the murder. Simons said at the time he believed Tucker was offering the money for a painting job. However, he told the Police that having witnessed Sousa committing the killing and later having the conversation where Sousa demanded the $1,000, he believed the cash was offered by Tucker for the murder of Mr. Clarke, who'd got him arrested for drugs.

On the day of the killing, Simons said he and Tucker picked up Sousa from his home in Warwick and he noticed Sousa had a knife. "When I saw the knife...I don't know what's happening but I wish not to be around, but unfortunately I was at the wrong place at the wrong time," he told the Police.

They dropped Sousa off at a bus stop before he and Tucker went to Mr. Clarke's house. There, he claimed Mr. Clarke offered him $100,000 to take the blame over the drugs shipment but he refused because he was trying to stay out of trouble.

He said he told Matthew "Yah bless up, check you later," as he and Tucker left, but then he saw someone jumping over Mr. Clarke's wall.

"They had a tan colour hoody type thermal shirt or something and a bandana or whatever across the face. I couldn't really see. All I saw was eyes and they did look at me, so that's when my heart skipped a beat and I felt I was in present danger," he claimed.

"I did hear a little commotion and I did tell Shannon 'let's get out of here' but I also tried to help Matthew out from his attacker that he is being attacked from. And at that point in time he must of been trying to reach, you know, get away, and probably that's why he's got his DNA on me 'cause I tried to you know, stop it."

He continued: "I was shell shocked, I was frightened, you know what I mean, the attacker tried to come at me so I basically took off." He went on to say that after he came out of the gate: "Kyle came out minutes later with his shirt all...blood all coming down his sleeve in front and he had took, taken it off, and was running outside the gate."

Simons said the blood-covered Sousa then got into Tucker's truck, getting blood on him, and sat between them. Denying any role in the killing he said: "I was pillion passenger throughout the whole thing. I never had any idea, any knowledge, anything to transpire between anybody."

After witnessing the killing, Simons said Tucker drove him home to North Street, with Sousa in the truck too. He said Sousa lingered in the yard when he went upstairs and when he came down again he found a metal pipe in his yard and a blood-covered shirt. He said he was followed by Sousa to Dellwood school where he threw these items in a pond, weighed down with rocks.

The court also heard yesterday from DNA expert Candy Zuleger. She described how a gold bracelet belonging to Matthew Clarke was examined and found to have his DNA on it. It also had the DNA of Simons on it as an additional contributor.

Ms Zuleger said one of the DNA donors found on the bracelet had left it there by means of blood. The other person's DNA could be from blood too but it could also be from skin cells, she explained.

Customs officer and Special Constable Roderick Masters told the court he'd dealt with Shannon Tucker after he was arrested on January 9, 2008 on suspicion of conspiracy to import a controlled drug. Later that month, he claimed Tucker called him at the narcotics office and told him that "these guys" had set him up. He recalled Tucker saying that "this guy Clarke", whose family runs the East Meets West restaurants, was planning a shipment to Bermuda of drugs within the next six to eight weeks

"Mr. Tucker told me he could hand us Clarke and another gentleman on a plate," explained Constable Masters. However, although he suggested Tucker arrange with his lawyer Elizabeth Christopher to come and give a Police statement, this never happened.

Asked by Mr. Field if Mr. Clarke was ever a suspect over the drugs matter, the officer replied: "There was never sufficient information that Clarke was involved in that shipment that Tucker had been arrested for on January 9."

The case continues.