Aggravated Burglary of Savings Plus' Rock Dundo: Eyewitness Testimonies in Trial of Kadeem Onan Vaughan

“I would rather he take the money than my life.”

This was the statement of Nikita Lynch, one of the two cashiers threatened with a cutlass and a gun during the aggravated burglary of Savings Plus’ Rock Dundo, St Michael branch over two years ago.

Giving evidence as the trial of Literary Row, St Michael resident Kadeem Onan Vaughan continued, she said while sitting at her station on the afternoon of July 16, 2021, she heard someone scream and then saw a cutlass-wielding man grabbing her work colleague, Sade Catlyn, from behind.

“I was getting up to go run in the back when he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t move. Open the pan,’” she recalled.

As she used a key to open her cash register, Lynch told the nine-member jury and Madam Justice Wanda Blair that another robber pulled out a gun and told her to open the rest of the cash registers.

Asked whether she could recall what the robber who had the gun was wearing, she said, “No please, just the ski mask.”

Admitting that she was “scared and frightened” when the robber pointed the gun toward her, Lynch said she opened the till as she was afraid she would lose her life if she did not.

Catlyn, who said she had been transferred from another branch shortly before the incident occurred, testified that she was putting back baskets and trolleys when her neck was grabbed from behind by a man, carrying a cutlass, who dragged her to the ground.

“From being dragged, the only person who was in my sight really was the guard because we had eye contact the whole time, and he was telling me to stay calm, and I could hear Nikita screaming,” she told the court.

Adding that she could hear the other robber telling her workmate to open the cash till, Catlyn said also saw him pointing the gun at Lynch.

The supermarket employee could not remember if the robbers had taken the cash or the cash pan and its contents.

“I was not expecting something like that to happen, especially since I was not supposed to be there as I had just recently got transferred,” Catlyn stated.

She also recounted that after the robbers left the supermarket and walked across the car park, she started going after them but was stopped by a friend.

The trial continues on Monday, October 23.