Acting Corporal Larry Lodhar, of the Homicide Bureau, said he was present when star witness, Jason Percival, said the original plan was to kidnap Balram Maharaj's child.
Lodhar, 33, who has been attached to the Bureau for the past three years, testified before Judge John Bates at the Washington Federal Court on July 7. Seven Trinidadians were found guilty of taking Maharaj hostage on July 31and will be sentenced on February 12, 2010. Lodhar said he became involved in the investigation into Maharaj's death when he went to witness a statement from Percival on January 23, 2006. When he met Percival, the suspect was detained, he was not free to leave. Lodhar said he was requested by Sgt Michael Veronique to become involved. Justice of the Peace Ackbar Khan was also present. The room, he said, was calm, "it was just like what we would refer to as cool." As far as Lodhar was aware, Percival did not talk to any other members of the police department about the facts of the kidnapping. No one, he said, made promises to Percival.
According to Percival's statement, "Sometime around January 2005, I was moving in a car with my cousin...... He told me that his boy have a programme that they want to deal with and the programme was some woman was willing to hand over her child and call for a ransom from the child's father. "He told me he was going to check the individual who has all the information about the same and he went to the Chaguaramas army headquarters and spoke to Leon Nurse. At first when Leon Nurse saw me, he was hesitant to speak because he did not know me. My cousin told him, 'don't get no horrors, you can talk, this is my cousin.' "Nurse proceeded to talk about the incident by saying it was his boy programme and what exactly it was they wanted to do, which is for the lady to hand over the child and call for the ransom from the child's father. But she wanted to be able to visit the child and when that was brought across to the other members, they did not agree to that particular part. So the programme went on pause."
Percival continued, "Around April 4, 2005, Nurse and (Ricardo) De Four came in Bourg (Mulatresse) to see Ninja (Wayne Pierre) in reference to snatching the man himself, but they were just waiting for him to touch down because he was not in the country. "On April 6, 2005, De Four and Nurse came with information that the man had come into the country and they were ready to deal with him. Nurse and De Four left by Mellow Moods Bar in Bourg to get a car. Sometime later, De Four came up Gran Curacaye to collect the guns. Saucy (Russel Joseph) had the vehicle to do the snatch, Ninja called for Boyie and Shaka to move with Saucy to snatch Balram. "When we reach the location which is a bar, the man was standing in the road talking to another man. A man picked him up and they went to another bar. I saw Saucy and Boyie and Shaka pass in the car. Boyie and Shaka exited the vehicle. I saw Balram sitting with his back to the door. They snatch him and put him in the car. "De Four dropped me off by the river and I went home. The next day, Ninja asked Winston (Gittens) if he was willing to negotiate and he said yes. I witness Winston negotiate with the Balram family on the pay phone at Grand Bazaar the day after the snatching. By the end of the week, Winston had gotten nowhere with the negotiation.
"I was liming at the Mellow Moods bar one night with De Four, Nurse and Saucy when Ninja came and explained to us that the man had died and something needs to be done about him. He came up with the idea to bury the man because he said no body, no evidence, no case."
Lodhar said the question was then asked of Percival:
Q: Who was the woman who was willing to hand over the child and call for the ransom?
A: I never see the woman but Stevo told me it was Gypsy's son woman.
Q: What time on the 6th April did De Four and Nurse come with information that the man had come back in the country?
A: It was morning time. They spoke to me and Ninja, and they limed the whole day until the evening when they left to go on the kidnapping.
Q: Did you ever investigate to see if Mr De Four was on duty that day?
A: No sir.
Q: Did anyone?
A: I cannot say.
Q: Do you know where Chaguaramas is? How long would it take to get from Chaguaramas to Bourg Mulatresse? A: I know where Chaguaramas is. By car, it is at least an hour, hour and a half, two hours in the afternoon.
Under cross-examination, Lodhar said he interviewed Percival two days earlier and took interview notes. He admitted he would have been in possession of information. That interview with Percival lasted three and a half hours. He said there were only six pages of interview notes recorded during that period. When asked to read the notes, it took him just ten minutes. Attorney Jonathan Zucker's fair projection was that if Lodhar took ten minutes to write a page, then the written notes should have taken an hour. The question then was, "What was done during the other two and a half hours?" Lodhar said the time was taken to check spelling and punctuation.
TOMORROW: The rescue of a kidnapped woman