TWO police officers have testified that murder accused Rodney Beckles confessed to stabbing Khalil Campbell during a fight at a ganja base along Old Hope Road in January of this year.

One of the officers, Constable Dale Reid, testified in the Home Circuit Court on Thursday that he had gone to a dorm at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus on January 3 to take Beckles into custody when he made the confession.

“I told him that I was there regarding an alleged case of murder in which he was a suspect,” Reid testified.

He said Beckles, the son of a UWI professor, was cautioned.

Constable Reid said he then handcuffed the towering Beckles and “quickly” led him from the dorm, where two other persons were, to a waiting service vehicle.

The lawman said he asked Beckles if he knew Campbell – the son of high court judge Lennox Campbell – and if he knew that he had died. Beckles, the cop testified, said he knew nothing.

“I asked him [again] if he knew anything about it and he said that he and Khalil were in a fight and he stabbed [him]: ‘Officer, mi stab him’,” the cop recounted.

The second officer – Constable Easton Blake – testified on Friday that Beckles confessed to him while at the Papine Police Station.

“I asked him if he knew why he was at the station and he said, ‘yes, officer, it happened so fast’,” Blake told the court.

Blake testified further that he cautioned Beckles, who then went on to explain that he and a friend were at 219 Old Hope Road smoking marijuana when Campbell started laughing at his [Beckles’] shoe and that he had a buck knife which he used to stab Campbell.

The officer further testified that Beckles told him that he had stabbed Campbell out of self-defence before saying, “Mi no know how dis reach mi.”

Beckles, 21, a social sciences student from Barbados, has been on trial since Monday on allegations that he stabbed to death 28-year-old Campbell, who, the court was told, was suffering from a mental condition.

Campbell received a total of 18 knife injuries to the face, neck, back, chest, arms and finger, pathologist Christopher Bolt testified. Bolt said that the majority of the wounds were superficial and that Campbell died from a fatal 10 centimetres deep stab wound that pierced his heart.

The defence is contending that Beckles was defending himself from Campbell.

The crown rested its case on Friday. The trial continues today.