A pair of latex gloves, recovered near the homes of the 12 men accused of murdering businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman, sat on a shelf in a police station for over a year before being sent for forensic testing.Senior crime scene investigator Supt John Frederick said so yesterday as defence attorneys in the high-profile murder trial raised the possibility that the lengthy delay and storage conditions might have destroyed DNA samples possibly found on the gloves.
Asked to specify the conditions which might destroy the samples, Frederick said: "DNA is an item that can be affected by temperature and items should be kept refrigerated."He also admitted that mould was also an environmental factor which could contaminate the samples."If you don't keep the exhibit at a refrigerated temperature, can mould accumulate?" defence attorney Wayne Sturge asked.
While he acknowledged Sturge's claim, Frederick could not say if the gloves were covered in mould when they were eventually sent for testing.Although he admitted that the evidence was stored in less than favourable conditions at the Arouca Police Station, Frederick could not reveal the results of tests on the gloves.He said he did not receive any feedback from experts assigned to the Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt), after handing over the gloves and other pieces of evidence to them in 2008.
"Fingerprints can be found inside of a glove. With the gloves obtained, the tips were cut off for testing but I don't have the certificate of analysis with the results for fingerprint-testing or DNA testing," Frederick said.On Tuesday, he testified he found the pieces of evidence in a forested area of Upper La Puerta Avenue, Diego Martin, during a raid in the area on January 6, 2007. A subsequent raid took place almost five months later when the 12 accused were arrested.
Naipaul-Coolman, 52, was kidnapped from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Chaguanas, on December 19, 2007. Her family paid a $122,000 ransom but she was not released and her body has never been found.Prosecutors have contended she was held captive at a single-storey red-brick house in the area for over a week before being shot dead and dismembered.
A defence attorney for one of the accused, Devon Peters, yesterday questioned why police never returned his client's passport and a small quantity of cash seized from the house during the first raid.Frederick, the police officer who seized the items, admitted they were of no evidential value to the case."The only reason I have the items is because I have not been given instructions to hand it over. If the court orders it, I will do so," Frederick said.
The trial, before Justice Malcolm Holdip, resumes this morning with the testimony of PC Wayne Phillip, a police photographer.