Wayne Pierre..cut up body.

Now that most of the evidence has been published in this series, the time has come for the opening and closing addresses of all counsel in the matter. Today, we publish the first part of the opening address of Assistant US Attorney Emily Miller.

Assistant US Attorney Emily Miller told a Washington jury that US citizen, Balram “Balo” Maharaj, suffered a slow and agonising death after he was kidnapped by a gang of men on April 6, 2005, while on a vacation to Trinidad. In her opening statement to the 12-member jury, Miller said this case was about greed, conspiracy and a kidnapping that ended in the death of an American citizen. She said the evidence at the trial would show that seven Trinidadians—Zion Clarke, Wayne Pierre, Anderson Straker, Ricardo de Four, Kevon Demerieux, Christopher Sealey and Kevin Nixon—entered into and carried out a plan to kidnap for ransom, Balo Maharaj. She said the evidence would show that because of their plan, because of their actions, Maharaj was kidnapped at gunpoint.

Miller said: “He was marched up into the mountainous jungles of Trinidad. He was held for about a week in a makeshift shelter of sticks and leaves. He was bound to a post. He was bound at the wrists and at the ankles and blindfolded. He had duct tape placed over his mouth. He was beaten. “And he was deprived of medicines he desperately needed to survive, medicines for his uncontrolled diabetes, his high blood pressure, his prostate, his general pain from major surgeries he’d had, and his anxiety. “The evidence will show that Mr Maharaj, toward the end of this week, no longer could breathe. He began coughing, complaining about his illness, slipped into delirium, and died. The evidence will not be able to show you the exact cause of death for Mr Maharaj, and that’s because after he died, some of these defendants, Wayne Pierre, Kevon Demerieux and Zion Clarke took a machete and chopped his body into pieces. “They placed his body parts into a blue barrel and a Styrofoam cooler and buried it in the jungle. And when his body was recovered more than six months later, it was largely decomposed mush and skeleton. And so the medical examiner could not perform the kinds of tests he would normally do to determine a precise cause of death.”

The US prosecutor told the jury: “But you will have no doubt at the end of the evidence in this case, that the cause of death is sitting at those tables right there (pointing to the accused).” She said Maharaj was a naturalised American citizen. His case, she added, was in the Washington courtroom because when an American is taken hostage anywhere in the world, his captors, his abductors are brought to justice in Washington, DC. She pointed out that Maharaj emigrated to the United States as a young man. Miller said: “He had a wife here. He had a family here. But he would often go back to Trinidad to visit. He had lifelong friends there and family there. “When he was born, his name was actually Alladin Barlow John, and you're going to hear that name throughout the trial. He changed his name when he became older to become Balram Bachu Maharaj for religious reasons. Most of his friends and family knew him through his life simply as “Balo.” “The evidence will show that in late March or early April of 2005, Mr Maharaj went back on one of his usual trips to Trinidad, to see those friends and to see those family members. That on April 6, 2005, he was sitting at a bar that was actually run by a lifelong friend of his, a woman named Zyroon Gajadhar, who you will hear from at trial. He was having a beer.

“The bar, you’ll hear a lot about, is called the Samaan Tree Bar. It sits back from the road, say about 15 or 20 feet from the road, and there’s a sidewalk between the road and the bar. “Mr Maharaj was sitting with his back toward the road, completely unaware of what was about to take place. As he sat there, having a beer with some friends, these two men, Christopher Sealey and Kevin Nixon, armed with guns provided to them by Ricardo de Four, guns that belonged to that man, Wayne Pierre, marched into the bar and snatched Mr Maharaj at gunpoint. They marched up to him and said, ‘It’s you we come for.’” The prosecutor continued her address: “Mr Maharaj did not want to go. The evidence will show that he tucked down and held on to the sides of his chair. But these men would not be stopped. They took Mr Maharaj in his chair and dragged him across that sidewalk 15 or 20 feet to a getaway car that was waiting. “When he still wouldn't let go of the chair, they slapped him, causing him to release his hands from the chair, and shoved him into the back of that car. And the car sped off. “Christopher Sealey and Kevin Nixon were not the only people at the Samaan Tree Bar that night. The evidence will show that Ricardo de Four was also there. He was observing from a distance. His job that night was to carry the guns to the scene that would be used by Sealey and used by Nixon, and then when the getaway car was speeding off, to clear the roads, to be the front driver and push his way through the traffic.”

Continues tomorrow