The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A PROSECUTOR yesterday urged jurors to reject the alibi of a man accused of a 2014 murder. She said the woman who claimed to be with him that night never told police and came forward only 12 years later.

Kirkwood Rolle, 35, is on trial before Justice Roberto Reckley for the murder of Clarence “Drops” Newry Coakley. Prosecutors allege Rolle shot Coakley in the head as he sat behind a house on Saxon’s Way in Mason’s Addition on May 7, 2014. Coakley, who was wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time, died at the scene. The gunman fled on foot.

In her closing address, prosecutor Kristin Butler Beneby told the jury that Rolle had told others he killed Coakley.

She took aim at the testimony of Marvinique, a defence witness who said she was with Rolle at Smith’s Hotel at the time of the shooting. Ms Butler Beneby said the witness had never told police this and only came forward 12 years after the killing. She described her evidence as “wishy washy”.

Ms Butler Beneby also questioned the witness’s state of mind, saying she had told the court she was heavily sedated that night. She suggested the witness paused during her testimony because she needed time to gather her thoughts and get her story straight.

Ms Butler Beneby acknowledged that the witness had been shot. She urged the jury to find Rolle responsible for the murder and to return a just verdict.

Defence attorney Marianne Cadet maintained her client’s innocence. She told the jury he was nowhere near the shooting and had an alibi for where he was at the time.