Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:14 hours 47 min ago
THE KILLING OF A US CITIZEN—PART 5
After 'Balo' died in captivity...
Witness: Plan was to kill co-conspirators
Published: 18 Sep 2009
(An excerpt from the register of the T&T Regiment, showing its members who were at Camp Omega on April 6, 2005.)
Former soldier Jason Percival said after Balram “Balo” Maharaj died in the hands of his abductors, Sgt Leon Nurse came up with the plan to kill four of the co-conspirators. He said at the time, one of them was in jail, two could not be found, while the other was still in the Santa Cruz area. Percival was questioned at length at the trial in June, first by Jonathan Zucker, the US-based attorney for Ricardo De Four.
Percival said having pleaded guilty to hostage-taking resulting in death, he was expecting a reduced sentence. He was also looking forward to other benefits. While in Trinidad, he was in the witness protection programme, but in the US, he was kept in prison.
Q: Did you want to avoid jail?
A: Yes.
Q: And, you were willing to do pretty much anything you could to avoid it? Isn’t that correct?
A: What I needed to do, sir.
Q: Did that include lying.
A: No, sir.
Q; You were willing to kill witnesses, weren’t you.
A: Kill witnesses?
Q: Didn’t you tell Leon Nurse that you wanted to murder Russel Joseph so that he could not be available as a witness against you?
A: Leon Nurse told me he wanted to get rid of Russel Joseph and Zion Clarke.
Q: He was worried that they were going to be witnesses?
A: Yes, sir. He didn’t want to be exposed as being attached to Balram.
Q: Didn’t you tell him you wanted to kill Anderson Straker because you were concerned he could be a witness against you?
A: No, sir
Q: What about Doreen Alexander? Did you tell him that you wanted to kill her because you were worried she could talk.
A: No sir, I told him what Pierre (Wayne) told me, sir.
Q: Did you warn these people?
A: No, sir.
Q: So you just didn’t care if they were murdered?
A: No, sir.
Percival said he met with Nurse and De Four on the morning of April 6.
“Three of us limed for part of the day...I admitted in my statement to Cpl Veronique that we limed the whole day until the evening when we left,” he said.
Q: You didn’t correct that statement at any time.
A: No, sir.
Q: And that’s the truth, isn’t it?
A: As I can remember it, sir.
Q: Can you explain to me how my client was there in the morning and then limed with you whole day, when he was on duty at Camp Omega that morning?
A: Sir, soldiers in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment leave their post several times for many different reasons. Sometimes they leave to go one place and end up the other. As long as you have a connection with the guard commander, they allow them to leave as long as they are close together.
Q: Who was the guard commander that day?
A: I don’t know. All I know is how soldiers are accustomed to operating in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment. Not all, but some, sir. There are many times when De Four came to look for me when he was supposed to be working, and he was present with me, sir.
Q: Was he on duty at Camp Omega?
A: I don’t know, sir. If it was written that he was on duty, it would have been no surprise to me.
Q: How about if he was teaching a class that morning? How about if that was his duty assignment on April 6, to be teaching a class to other soldiers?
A: On the day of the kidnapping, sir? Yes. I have no answer for that.
Q: Because it would mean you are lying. Right?
A: He was at the bar with me. I have no answer if he was supposed to be teaching a class or he was actually teaching a class. He was at the bar with me, sir, on the day of the kidnapping.
Q: When you met with the FBI on March 24, 2009, in Orange Virginia, you said you met at Mellow Moods Bar with Nurse and Straker, here you said De Four was there. Why did you leave it out your statement with the FBI?
A: I did not leave it out. I don’t know what happened, I did not leave it out. I have no answer for that.
Percival said De Four was present when surveillance was done on Balram. But it was not in his statement to the Trinidad police on January 23, 2006.
A: Sir, that is supposed to be there. He is not there.
Q: Did you choose to leave him out of friendship?
A: I would have mentioned that, sir. He was there, but it’s not there. It is not there in my statement, I don’t know why.
Q: Why did you sign the statement as being correct?
A: I’d say it’s probably something that I missed, sir. I never noticed over the past four years it was not there. I can’t give any explanation, other than I didn’t notice it.
Q: You said on your way to the Samaan Tree Bar from the Mellow Moods bar, you stopped on the way to observe Balram. But in your statement to the police and the FBI, you did not say so.
A: I can’t say why.
Star witness
Former soldier Jason Percival was the star witness against seven Trinidadians in Washington DC, on trial for taking US citizen Balram ‘Balo’ Maharaj hostage, and then killing him. They were found guilty on July 31 and will be sentenced on February 12, 2010. The seven—Ricardo De Four, Wayne Pierre, Zion Clarke, Kevon Demerieux, Anderson Straker, Christopher Sealey, and Kevin Nixon—face mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Percival’s cross-examination by Jonathan Zucker is contained among 8,000 pages of the official transcript of the court proceedings, which are in the possession of the T&T Guardian.
TOMORROW:
How Leon Nurse failed two lie detector tests.
This is an indictment on the
This is an indictment on the Police
I have been wondering over the past couple days, having read the coverage of the testimony of 'Soldier' why Daddy came out to beg for his son. He, having worked with him, always struck me as a logical and reasoned man. It seemed crazy that he would make such an appeal at this time as he did in Monday's paper given the evidence.
I now am starting to understand Mr. De Four. Since this is the official documents of the court, one can only glean that these documents have been authenticated. Given that assumption, why then did Cpl Veronique and the others who ACP Reyes commended as doing such a "good" job, NOT check this before they arrested De Four Jr? Is that how the Police work? Do they just listen to a so called conspirator and do not seek first to verify whether there is any truth to the allegations?
Clearly the justice system
Clearly the justice system in trinidad is a joke. but Is it that the government just want to get some rating from a so called "solved" kid-napping even if it was not tried here? even if it was an unfair trial?and is it easier to let a trusted soldier( because for him to guard the President there must be some level of checks resulting in some amount of trust) go to his ill faith. IF HE WAS INVOLVED HE SHOULD GO TO HIS FAITH!!! but what if this soldier is innocent for real? wah if this was ur son, ur brother, ur uncle, whatever, the point is every human deserves a FAIR TRIAL!!!.
How did this soldier get mixed up in this anyway?
The military looking real bad based on the statements of this murderer (As long as you have a connection with the guard commander, they allow them to leave as long as they are close together.)WHAT!!! ....... huh.. you sounding like u go say anything to come out jail in some years down d road, you should get d same faith as Balo... but worst. Then again no body in trinidad is accountable for nothing so i guess it is expected that the same applies to the military too.
TRINIDAD NEED A CLEANSING YES! TOTAL REFORM! LIKE WE TRYING TO LOOK FIRST WORLD BUT WITH A THRID WORLD MENTALITY... WE JOKEY. WE REAL JOKEY HERE!!!
Again the Guardian FAILS to
Again the Guardian FAILS to mention the FACT his common law wife also help to set him up!
Questions,many questions but
Questions,many questions but the answers are not available.I am among many who questioned De Four`s father motive after he was convicted, looking at the log of April 6th 2005,it accounted for where he was from 6.30am to 12 noon.Jason Percival said he was with De Four all day on the said date, without providing a time frame.An account of De Four`s movement from 12.01pm on April 6th to 6.30am on April 7th is unavailable.This is an important fact, the police investigators may have missed an opportunity to properly investigate De Four movements on that day,or they may have,and may have evidence to dispute the log.There are many questions that are not answered,as well as there are many answers that are mot provided.At present the verdict of GUILTY stands.
Percival said having pleaded
Percival said having pleaded guilty to hostage-taking resulting in death, he was expecting a reduced sentence. He was also looking forward to other benefits. While in Trinidad, he was in the witness protection programme, but in the US, he was kept in prison.
1. Percival, what 'benefits' were you looking for? A green card? A holiday in Disney? A tour of the Empire State Building? Or a weekend in the Keys? They better keep you in the US jail, because there may be other uncaught accomplices waiting for you here?
1. Percival, although you provided invaluable evidence, you are just as crooked as the others. You aided and abetted in the kidnapping and killing of Balo, and therefore you should pay with prison time, not a pardon. Hope they lost you in jail like the others.
There are lots of Percivals out there who do not actually kill, but participate in a crime when they:
give valuable information to murderers, robbers, rapists etc about the habits and routines and movements of intended victims;
drive getaway cars (remember the fella who was the driver in the Dole Chadee case?);
work in banks, credit unions, UTC and other financial institutions and give information about intended victims' financial status such as how much money they (victims) have in an account;
are police informers and are allowed to get away with murder, literally;
look and behave like normal and ordinary law-abiding people like you and me and work at gaining the trust of others;
have infiltrated the police and the army, where they get official legal authority and power to carry firearms, move around and commit crimes using official vehicles, have access to official uniforms,get official IDs, and have connections with people in high places;
usually have a great deal of accomplices and colleagues who are 'moles' and who seem eager and ready to protect them in many ways such as stalling investigators, contaminating or losing evidence, and protecting them in the courts and stations when they are caught, hiding their faces, taking them into and out of court in back entrances and heavily tinted vehicles, intimidating and even terminating witnesses.
Thank gods there are a few honest officers. It's a great pity that they have to get justice quite in the US and not here. Speaks volumes about our paralyzed society, doesn't it?
ajfyzabadbutlertown
The Gaurdian will in the
The Gaurdian will in the future I'm sure write a story about the Maharaj Family and how this tradigy affected them