Second witness says Bush admitted killing son

(CNS): A West Bay woman told the court on Thursday that Roger Deward Bush confessed to her that he had killed his son hours after Shaquille Bush (24) was found dead in his yard on Miss Daisy Lane, having been shot multiple times. Candace Orrett Ebanks said she had tried to avoid hearing what had gone on that night, saying, “I figured the less I heard, the better.”

But when Bush and his girlfriend, Nikkieta Ebanks, ended up at Candace Ebanks’ home on the night of the murder, she found herself sitting alone with Bush.

She said the beginning of the conversation was mainly about God and forgiveness. Then she asked him if he wanted to go and see Shaquille’s mother since the deceased man had been the eldest child of both his parents.

Ebanks said Bush was very upset and, given the circumstances, she thought that was how he should be. But, she recalled, he said no repeatedly, saying over and over, “No, I can’t do that,” and that he believed that his son’s mother “would know”.

Ebanks described how Bush revealed that he was the killer. As they continued talking, he told her many “different stories that night”, initially suggesting that his son had struck him with a piece of pipe, then that he was armed with a gun and later that he had a knife. Eventually, Bush claimed that his life had been in jeopardy and he had to “teach [his son] a lesson” because he could not get away from him.

“I don’t know what lesson you can teach a dead man,” Ebanks told the court as she described what she was thinking when Bush spoke about the death of Shaquille. Calling the police on his son would have been a lot better than killing him, she said she had thought to herself at the time but did not pass on those feelings to Bush, whom she knew very well.

As he told his changing stories about what had happened, Ebanks believed that he was really upset and regretted what had happened, she said.

But the witness told the court that things Bush has since said to her made her realise that he may not be all that remorseful after all. She revealed that after Nikkieta Ebanks, her friend and Bush’s girlfriend, left for England shortly after Shaquille’s funeral, Bush visited her many times.

She said he “just kept popping up randomly”, sometimes in the early hours of the morning. She told the court that on one occasion he was angry about Nikkieta’s departure and told Candace that if Nikkieta was “going to mess with” him, he would cut off her lifeline. When Candace asked him what he meant, he told her that Nikkieta was being supported in the UK by her mother.

“I wonder if she knows that I can kill three generations,” Ebanks recalled him saying, and told the court she believed that was a clear threat to Nikkieta and her family.

As the witness told the court what she knew about the murder, including her surprise visit from Nikkieta before the murder, finding out about the shooting, attending the crime scene, meeting Nikkieta afterwards in Lower Valley, driving around, picking up Bush, seeing that he was armed and then reluctantly taking them both back to her home, much of what she said aligned with evidence given by NIkkieta Ebanks as well as CCTV and phone evidence presented by the crown.

Ebanks revealed she was the one who had helped Bush and Nikkieta meet, as she had known Bush for many years. She explained that when she was just 16, she was in a relationship with Robert Mackford Bush and lived with him in the family yard at Daisy Lane. She recalled how going to the crime scene on the night Shaquille was killed reminded her of him as he, too, had been gunned down in the district in September 2011. Brian Borden was convicted of his murder in 2014, which was upheld on appeal.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Oliver Blunt QC suggested that Candace Ebanks was lying and that Bush had never made any confessions. When asked about Bush’s attitude towards Jamaicans, she said he hated them and agreed with Blunt’s assertions that he was obsessed with the idea that Jamaican gangs were trying to kill him.

During the night after Shaquille was gunned down, in addition to rumours that Bush was the killer, a rumour that he had been shot by a random Jamaican gang was also circulating.

Blunt challenged her character, and she admitted she had a conviction for the possession of ganja, for which she paid a fine. But she denied the defence lawyer’s allegation that she dealt drugs for Roger Bush, though she did say she was getting ganja from him for her own use. The court has already recorded that Bush made his living from selling ganja and was growing it in Daisy Lane.

Blunt also challenged Candace’s memory, pointing to a comment she made to the police about having a poor memory. He suggested that she was just saying whatever Nikkieta told her to say, but Ebanks said that was not the case. While she had memory issues, “You can always remember the truth,” she said.

The case continues.