SERGEANT ERIC PARK

Kevon Demerieux, one of the seven Trinidadians facing a mandatory life sentence, turned to God after Balram (Balo) Maharaj died in the hands of his abductors. This was revealed to a Washington jury on June 25 when Sergeant Eric Park, of the Homicide Bureau, testified before Judge John Bates. Park, 47, has been a member of the T&T Police Service for 28 years. He has been a member of the Homicide Bureau for the past four years. He got involved in the Maharaj kidnapping case in January 2006. On January 4, 2006, he interviewed Demerieux who was in police custody.

But Demerieux was released because the lack of evidence. He was rearrested on March 31, 2006. Park told the accused that he had a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Balram Maharaj. “I cautioned him. He told me that the last time we spoke, he lied. He said he had changed his life, and he has accepted the Lord as his personal saviour, and he would tell me the truth.”
Demerieux then dictated a statement in the presence of the Justice of the Peace.

He said, “The day the man get kidnapped, I was with some friends right up in Gran Curacaye. Jason Percival come and tell me to go up by the river. He asked me if I had a touchlight. I went by the river and I carry the torchlight for a fella by the river. When I reach I see Jason and another fella, and a fair skinned Indian man. That was sometime around eight to nine in the night, in the early part of April. The place was dark. “When I reached there, it was dark. I whistle the fella. He whistle back and he and Jason came out. I asked them what was going on and Jason say, ‘Well, we now kidnap this man and I want you to stay with him.’ I asked why me, why you want me to stay with him? He said, well, we have nobody else.”

Demerieux said Jason gave another man a gun and that really got him frightened. He said, “I study the kidnapped man, and they have gun and thing. I agreed to stay and we walked up the track with the man. We take about 15 minutes to walk up because the man was old and weak. When we stopped, I was thinking about what I get myself in. I end up just lying down and sleeping that night. “The next morning, the other guy said a wall fall on the man in New York and the man collect some money for the fall. He explained that the fellas wanted to get money from the man.

I asked, so why they must do the man that? He replied, ‘We hungry. We have to get some food somewhere. I asked the other fella, now, who really bring the man here?’ He said it was not them alone, and he asked me how I moving so frightened. “I turned and tell him this was something I was not accustomed to. The other fella said it was Jason and some other fellas. I get more frightened because of the names they called. I asked the man he name and he say Balo. I say, look at this old man, the man like he hear what I say. He say, ‘All ya look at me, I could be your father.’”

Demerieux said, One of the fellas tell me to go down the hill and get water. I was going to duck them and duck out. But I climb back up the hill with the bottle of water and I just sit down. I then went and lie down. Them fellas pull aside and was talking for ten minutes, and one fella leave. I say the man must get horrors. I was vexed, and I just end the talk right there.” On April 12, Demerieux went down the hill and bought crackers. He said the man was asking for his medication.

“The next morning, the 13th April, the man start to talk to himself like he was travelling already. When I see how the man acting, I say in my mind, God, please don’t let the man dead. I see like the man wouldn’t make it. One of the fellas tell me to go get a car and take the man out of here, because it look like the man wouldn’t make it. “The man pass away right there. One fella went and got a fork, a cutlass, a pick axe and a piece of shovel. Jason tell them to chop up the man and bury him. I say I not taking part in that. I said I was going down the road and I did not care if they kill me.

We put the man’s body behind a big stone. “I went down the road and then I saw Jason and some others in a car. They got two containers and they say they go chop up the man and bury him. One fella chop up the man body, the others were helping, I moved because I didn’t want to see that. They put the body in two containers and one fella say they would bury the body the next day.

TOMORROW: Cop under pressure