When investigators sat across from the men accused of killing senior Customs officer Nigel Christian, and asked him point blank whether they did it, they all denied it. But Saleim Harrigan in particular did not just say no. He reached for the most sacred assurance he could offer, swearing on the lives of his mother and his children that he had absolutely no part in the killing — that such an act was entirely beyond the kind of man he considered himself to be.

That moment, read into evidence Thursday before Justice Rajiv Persaud, came as the lead investigator in the murder trial of Harrigan, Wayne Thomas and Lasean Bully continued her testimony. The three men are accused of abducting Christian from his McKinnons home on July 10, 2020 and executing him on a dirt road in Thibou’s that same afternoon.

Each of the accused, across multiple police interviews, denied any knowledge of or involvement in the murder. Their responses ranged from animated protest to complete silence, but none of them admitted to any role in the crime.

Bully, claimed the day of the killing was too difficult to recall with any precision. He expressed disgust at whoever was responsible and insisted that people capable of such an act deserved no mercy. When investigators later confronted him with forensic evidence — specifically, that his DNA had been recovered on a bag found at Perry Bay — he shut down entirely, offering nothing but refusals to engage with any question put to him.