Soto denies knowledge of gun in fatal robbery

(CNS): Eric Brian Williams Soto (23) denied knowing anything about the gun his partner in crime had brought to a robbery gone wrong in April 2022, in which Harry Elliott was shot and killed. The former prison officer was gunned down in the doorway of a numbers shop, which Soto admits he and Justin Kyle Jackson planned to rob. However, Soto said that, as far as he was concerned, no weapons were to be involved.

Soto took the stand to give evidence on his own behalf on Thursday after Jackson, who is accused of firing the gun at Elliott but claims it fired accidentally, passed up the opportunity to tell his side of the story to the jury.

The court heard that Soto has no previous convictions and had never been arrested for a serious crime until he was taken into custody last November, several months after Elliott was murdered. He told the jury that he had lied to the police at that time, saying he knew nothing about the murder and refusing to answer any questions, because he was scared.

“I had never been in a situation like that before, and I was really scared,” he said. “I was just too scared to say anything.”

Answering questions from his own lawyer, Charles Miskin KC, Soto related what he said happened on that fatal night. He said his friend Jackson, whom he knew well and hung out with often, arrived at his home to pick him up in Newlands around 5:20pm with the intention of going to West Bay. Soto said he had wanted to stay at his grandmother’s house that night.

He said that Jackson arrived in a Honda CR-V driven by Caine Thomas, whom he had never met before and didn’t know at all. Over the next few hours, the three men drove around town listening to music and going to various places while Soto waited to get to West Bay, he said. “But we never reached there.”

Around 30 minutes before the fatal robbery, Thomas collected his child and took her to his family home in Windsor Park. Afterwards, Thomas brought up the idea of the robbery for the first time and told both him and Jackson that he wanted help with it, Soto said.

Thomas drove to the location on School Road and drove around a few times, pointing out where they should go in, but said nothing more about how the robbery should go down, Soto said.

Soto said he had agreed to go along with the robbery because he wanted extra cash. At the time he had a maintenance job with Pool Patrol but only earned CI$400 per week, the court heard.

He said Thomas gave him a jacket and face covering and dropped him and Jackson off right by the location. Soto claimed that before he went inside, he did not know what type of business it was, how big the place was, who would be there or how the robbery was supposed to unfold. He just followed Jackson.

As they entered the small lobby, Jackson tried one door but that was locked. He then pressed what looked like a buzzer on the second door, which turned out to be the numbers shop, Soto said.

As the door opened, Jackson yelled out, “Unna know what time it is? It’s a robbery!” But as that happened, Harry Elliott, who was standing with his back to the pair of them, turned around and rushed towards them, Soto told the court. Jackson backed up and collided with Soto, who then heard a loud bang. “I took off running,” he said. By this time he knew Jackson had a gun.

Once outside, they both ran until Thomas came alongside and picked them up — another element of the robbery that had not been planned as far as he was aware, Soto said. As they got into the car, Jackson told Thomas that he thought he had shot someone but he didn’t know. At that point, Soto said, Thomas began complaining and cursing and asked for his gun back.

Soto said they all went back to Thomas’s house, where he called his mother to come collect him. Thomas told him to wipe down the car and put the clothes he wore in a bag, and it was not until some two weeks later that he became aware that someone had been shot dead, Soto said.

Under cross-examination by Jackson’s lawyer, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins KC, Soto denied that there was a fourth man in the car or that he and Jackson were threatened by this man as well as Thomas into committing the robbery. He also said that there had been no pressure on him or threats to his family from anyone.

Despite Bennett-Jenkins repeatedly asking him if he was threatened and raising the idea of the unnamed fourth man, Soto said there was no one else in the car that night and he was not afraid of anyone. He said he had not been threatened by Thomas or anyone else. Soto said, “I was just looking for extra cash, so I agreed to go.”

Soto also said he did not remember Thomas giving more details about the location being a numbers shop or that the robbery would not be reported, which was why Jackson had entered without a mask. Soto insisted that there was no real plan or discussion about the robbery.

Thomas had said he wanted help with the robbery and had pointed out the location and told them to go in and get the cash, Soto said. He said he did not see Thomas give Jackson a gun or recall him telling them both it was not loaded.

Soto said he and Jackson had collided after he had gone inside, but he didn’t know how the gun had gone off.

Crown prosecutor Candia James-Malcolm then took Soto through the events of that evening on 25 April. She began by asking him if he knew that Caine Thomas was dead, and as a result, he had nothing to fear from him. Soto agreed. He confirmed this was the first time he had been in trouble. He also said that he had agreed to do the robbery without any pressure being applied.

As he repeated his story, the prosecutor asked Soto how he imagined the robbery was going to happen if neither of the men had weapons, at a location he knew nothing about and had no idea what they would encounter. He agreed he didn’t know what to expect inside but just thought they would make noise and then grab the money and deal with anything with their “barer hands”.

He accepted that his story might “sound odd, but that’s what happened”. He described a last-minute, impromptu robbery without any planning or weapons involved. Soto repeatedly said that he didn’t know Jackson had a gun until the shot went off. He denied seeing Jackson pull the firearm from his waist as he entered the numbers shop, as shown on CCTV, or that he even heard him slide or crank the handgun to load the ammunition, despite being right behind him and looking over his shoulder.

Although James-Malcolm suggested he knew Jackson had the gun, Soto continued to deny knowing anything about it until after Elliott was shot and insisted he was telling the truth.

Soto said he did not know anyone had died until later. When pressed about his behaviour after the crime and why he did not think to go to the police and tell this story, he said, “Of course, I thought about it, but I just didn’t,” he said. He also accepted it would have been the reasonable thing to do to tell the police about what happened when he was finally arrested, but he said he was scared to do that and was trying to protect himself.

The case continues.

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