Second cop rejects claim Ruddock’s confession was coerced

According to Jamaica Observer (General News), A detective sergeant on Tuesday corroborated the testimony of a colleague given last week that murder accused Andre Ruddock was not forced in any way to admit to cutting the throat of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James, on October 17, 2021. Ruddock is on trial in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston in relation to Gardner’s killing at the church. He was allegedly acting on the instructions of his now-deceased pastor, Kevin Smith. Last week a detective corporal, who was a detective constable at the time of the incident, told the seven jurors, trial Judge Leighton Pusey, prosecutors and defence attorneys, that when Ruddock was taken from the crime scene to Montego Bay Police Station in Freeport, he confessed to the killing during a caution statement without being forced or threatened. Ruddock subsequently gave answers to 42