Kevon Demerieux

Rita Pendry, the attorney who represented Kevon Demerieux, said in her opening statement the kidnapping of US citizen, Balram Balo Maharaj, was planned at Defence Force Headquarters, Chaguaramas.

Pendry said the kidapping was planned by soldiers, Leon Nurse and Ricardo Stevenson, and a former soldier, Jason Percival. She told the Washington jury Winston Gittens was the negotiator for the ransom. “You’re going to get to hear this Government witness who was, back in 2005, in Trinidad on the phone trying to extort money from the family of Mr Maharaj. “And this man will come in here and sit on the witness stand and testify before you. “Mr Gittens, you’ll learn, has a deal with the Trinidad authorities. He has a letter from the Trinidad authorities that says he won’t be prosecuted down in Trinidad as long as he comes into this courtroom and assists this Government in prosecuting these gentlemen who are here before you. “Mr Gittens was the ransom negotiator, but you’re going to learn that Jason Percival was overseeing every step of the way. “Jason Percival, Government witness Percival, will tell you that he was the one who told Gittens, don’t take that amount of money. They’ve got more. Get more. That’s the Government’s witness who’s doing the negotiating and controlling what happens during the negotiations.

“You will hear Mr Maharaj’s body was dismembered after he was dead. You’re going to hear from Russel Joseph, Government witness Russel Joseph, that Mr Joseph volunteered to do the dismembering. “Mr Joseph went home to his house and got his own cutlass to do the dismembering. Mr Joseph, a cutlass, by the way, is like a machete.” Pendry told Judge John Bates: “You’re going to hear that Leon Nurse was the person who got the car to do the kidnapping. And Leon Nurse was the person who got a stolen car by the way, one he thought couldn’t be traced. “And you’re going to hear that Mr Nurse got the licence tag, fake tag, and put it on the car, so that he and his buddies, who are Government witnesses, could carry out the kidnapping. “This is the cast of characters that the Government is going to bring to you and ask you to rely on those characters to convict my client of these crimes.” The Washington-based attorney added: “You’ll hear the Trinidad police say that on March 31, 2006, Mr Demerieux told them that yes, he was involved in this offence, and you’ll hear the FBI say that just a matter of hours later he told them he was involved in this offence. “But what you will also hear is that in January, Mr Demerieux was called in to talk to the Trinidad police, and you will hear that again within hours or minutes after he was examined by the Trinidad police, the FBI talked to him.”

She said FBI special agent, William Clauss, would say that Demerieux was shaking uncontrollably. “He was shaking so badly that the FBI agents said, ‘Stop shaking.’ And even when he told Mr Demerieux, ‘Stop shaking,’ Mr Demerieux continued to shake uncontrollably and move his foot. He could not stay still. He could not keep from shaking.” Pendry said Demerieux grew up in Bourg Mulatresse. “You’ll learn that he was known as a whacker. A whacker is someone who has a weed-whacker and they go around from place to place cutting and trimming people’s yards. “Now, the Government told you Mr Demerieux is a bushman, and they told you that allows you to travel in the forest without detection. They made it sound like it’s a bad thing; there’s something criminal about that. “Mr Demerieux loved the forest and you’ll hear about that. He’s loved the forest since he was a child, going in the forest, trapping animals for the family to eat. He loves to garden, grow his food for the family to eat. “You’ll hear that Mr Demerieux, this simple man, was not involved in any planning of any kidnapping, not involved in snatching any kidnap victim, not involved in any way in this kidnapping of Mr Maharaj.” Pendry made what she considered to be a vital point. “When the crime was discovered, we had the FBI and the Trinidad police, who are quite well trained and quite well equipped.

“We had everybody scouring this crime scene for evidence that would link the people who had been on the scene to the crime. Forensic evidence. “Things that fingerprints could come off of, clothing, anything that could tie the perpetrators, let them know who the perpetrators were. “And that two very efficient law enforcement authorities found not one shred of evidence at that crime scene where they claim my client stayed for days on end. “Not one iota of evidence to link him to that crime scene. And that’s another reason, ladies and gentlemen, that when the case is over, Ill come back to you and ask you, based on everything that you’ve heard in this courtroom, and what you won’t hear in the courtroom, to find Mr Demerieux not guilty.”