Daddy, father, prophet

A witness on Tuesday testified that the late Pathways International Restoration Ministries’ Pastor Kevin Smith was so revered by his flock that some called him “Daddy”, while others addressed him as “Father”, “Dr Smith” or “Prophet of the Nation”. The witness is the second to have taken the stand since last week in the Home Circuit Court trial of Andre Ruddock, who was said to have been Smith’s bodyguard. Ruddock is being tried for murder in relation to the October 17, 2021 sacrificial-type killing of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner whose throat was cut at the church, allegedly on the instructions of Smith, after Gardner confirmed to the pastor that she believed he could bring her back to life.

The witness claimed that Ruddock rushed to Gardner and carried out the pastor’s orders after another member of the church hesitated. Two men were also killed at the church on the night, one by the police and another allegedly by Smith, who watched him bleed out and subsequently requested that his body be placed inside a fowl coop. During cross-examination by Anthony Williams, one of two attorneys representing Ruddock, the witness was asked whether Smith told the congregation to call him by several names.

“Correct,” the witness, who was shot twice in the back by Smith on the night of the incident, told the court. “He titled himself ‘Prophet of the Nation’,” the witness added. “Were you a junior minister in training?” Williams asked the witness, who confirmed to the attorney that Smith designated him as such.

Asked if he accepted that designation by Smith, the witness said, “Yes, I did”, but could not explain what his exact duties were. I would assist occasionally to get him ready, I would sheer his head and I would bring his Bible to the pulpit,” he told Williams, who asked him if he was sure that these were his only activities as junior minister in training. The witness answered in the affirmative.

Williams probed, whether “Daddy” was one of the names Smith told him and the other members of the congregation to refer to him as. According to the witness, that question could not be answered with a simple yes or no. “It was just a specific lady that started to call him that, and then other members called him that.

I can remember a specific lady called him Daddy or Father and that was on the basis that he was our spiritual father,” the witnes…