The three men accused of the Factory Road triple murders in April, were yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court. Chris Durham, Ian Sandy and Deon Calliste appeared before Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court. They were charged with killing Zaffar Calder, 15, Khenti Murai, 19, Kevon St Louis at a bottle factory in Diego Martin on April 21. Main witness in the case O’Neil Benjamin appeared for the seventh time to testify in the matter yesterday.

During his testimony Benjamin became angry at questions asked by attorney Mario Meritt who represented Durham. McNicolls had to calm him down by informing him that it was a strategy of lawyers to ask certain questions that would evoke rage in order for him (Benjamin) to give them the answers they wanted.

Sandy was represented by attorney Stacy Benjamin-Roach (no relation to witness) while Calliste was represented by Richard Clarke-Wills. The three lawyers, in their no-case submissions, noted that Benjamin’s evidence contained numerous inconsistencies. “He was not even at the crime scene and even if he was, there is no evidence saying so,” Meritt said. State prosecutor Ravi Rajah, however, highlighted that Benjamin’s evidence was sufficient and that he had enough time to see the faces of the accused men.