Derek Achong

Re­put­ed gang leader Ra­jaee Ali and 11 mem­bers of his fam­i­ly's Cara­po mosque ac­cused of killing Se­nior Coun­sel Dana See­ta­hal reap­peared in court this morn­ing for the con­tin­u­a­tion of their case.

Dur­ing their brief hear­ing be­fore Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton, at­tor­ney Criston J Williams in­formed the court that he re­quired ad­di­tion­al time to pre­pare an ap­pli­ca­tion for the re­cusal of Chief Mag­is­trate Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar from the case. Welling­ton held for Ay­ers-Cae­sar, who is cur­rent­ly over­seas.

In a pre­vi­ous hear­ing of the case, Williams had claimed that the ap­pli­ca­tion was sim­i­lar to an­oth­er in re­la­tion to Ali's sep­a­rate charges for con­spir­ing to mur­der ra­dio an­nounc­er Ke­vaughn "Lur­bz" Sa­vory in De­cem­ber, last year. In that ap­pli­ca­tion which Williams claimed that Ay­ers-Cae­sar han­dling of the case may be taint­ed by the fact that she was be­ing guard­ed by of­fi­cers of the the Crim­i­nal Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit (CGIU) who al­so charged Ali in Sa­vory's case. It was even­tu­al­ly grant­ed by Ay­ers-Cae­sar.

In mak­ing sub­mis­sions to­day Williams ex­plained that he had made a se­ries of ap­pli­ca­tions un­der the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act for in­for­ma­tion re­quired for the sec­ondary ap­pli­ca­tion.

"This usu­al­ly takes a long time," Williams said, as he asked prosce­cu­tor Tri­cia Hudlin-Coop­er if the State was will­ing to re­lease the names of the po­lice of­fi­cers from the unit who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to See­ta­hal's mur­der.

Hudlin-Coop­er de­clined as she said the re­quest will on­ly be fa­cil­i­tat­ed af­ter the ap­pli­ca­tion is filed.

The case was then ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 8.

See­ta­hal was shot dead be­hind the wheel of her SUV af­ter be­ing am­bushed by gun­men along Hamil­ton Hold­er Street, Wood­brook, on May 4. She was re­turn­ing to her home at One Wood­brook Place af­ter spend­ing time at Ma Pau Casi­no, Ari­api­ta Av­enue. The group was even­tu­al­ly charged in June, this year.

The ac­cused:

Those charged with mur­der­ing See­ta­hal and with gang of­fences:

1. Ra­jaee Ali, 29, of Rose Dri­ve, Cara­po;

2. De­vaughn Cum­mings, 29, of Poui Lane, Mal­abar, Ari­ma;

3. Ish­mael Ali, 30, of Pinewood Dri­ve, Cara­po, Ari­ma (broth­er of Ra­jaee Ali);

4. Ri­car­do Stew­art, 30, of Rose Dri­ve, Cara­po, Ari­ma;

5. Earl Richards, 48, of Wa­ter­hole, Co­corite;

6. Stephan Cum­mings, 33, of Rose Dri­ve, Cara­po;

7. Gareth Wise­man, 33, of Cale­do­nia Road, Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas;

8. Hamid Ali, 34, of Melo­di­ans Cres­cent, Mal­abar, Ari­ma, (broth­er of Ra­jaee Ali);

9. Kevin Parkin­son, 28, of Wa­ter­hole, Co­corite;

10. Le­ston Gon­za­les, 28, of Mal­abar, Ari­ma;

11. Ro­get Bouch­er, 29, of Rose Dri­ve, Cara­po;

Those charged with on­ly gang of­fences:

1. Sta­cy Grif­fith, 29, of Mal­abar, Ari­ma (wife of Ra­jaee Ali);

2. De­on Pe­ters, 35, from Mal­abar and Cara­po, Ari­ma;

3. David Ec­tor, 35, of Bon Air Gar­dens, Arou­ca.