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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

'Dirty Dozen' to stand trial for Cocorite murder

by

20120413

As the loud protests of their wives and girl­friends filled the Port-of-Spain Eighth Mag­is­trates' Court, 12 men were yes­ter­day com­mit­ted to stand tri­al for the mur­der of Co­corite res­i­dent Amiel George. The group, com­mon­ly re­ferred to by court and process of­fi­cers as the "Dirty Dozen", was or­dered to be tried at the next sit­ting of the High Court by Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton.

The ac­cused are Reinal­do Mar­cano, 30; Ray­mond Birot, 39; Jirt Ser­rette, 26; Ke­ston Mor­ris, 21; Ger­ard Hep­burn, 18; De­veon Samuel, 18; Ter­rence "Trix" David, 28; Keon 'Tal­iban' Lawrence, 28; Joel "Snake" Roberts, 19; Sher­win 'Black' Alexan­der, 24; Richard Thomas, 29, and a 16-year-old boy, who can­not be named be­cause of his age.

Mar­cano and Birot live at Chin Chin Road, Cunu­pia. Both Ser­rette and Alexan­der live in San Juan, while the oth­er ac­cused all come from Pro­duc­tion Av­enue, Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain. As the com­mit­tal doc­u­ments were be­ing read in­di­vid­u­al­ly to each ac­cused, there was a loud out­burst from the pub­lic gallery of the court, which was packed with the group's friends and rel­a­tives.

Fe­male court and process of­fi­cers were sum­moned and ush­ered the un­ruly group of women out of the court­room. One of the women shout­ed ob­scen­i­ties as the com­mit­tal was be­ing read to her boyfriend. She was de­tained by po­lice and lat­er re­leased af­ter set­tling down.

Yes­ter­day's out­burst by the fam­i­ly and friends of the ac­cused men was not the first dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry. At a Jan­u­ary 20 hear­ing, Guard and Emer­gency po­lice were sum­moned to the hold­ing cells of the St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain cour­t­house to quell a dis­tur­bance caused by the ac­cused men.

Yes­ter­day's com­mit­tal came at the end of the two-year pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to George's mur­der, which oc­curred on Jan­u­ary 18, 2010. George, 24, of Build­ing One, Hard­ing Place, Co­corite, was at­tacked near his home dur­ing a rob­bery and died of mul­ti­ple chop wounds.

Sev­er­al hours af­ter George's mur­der, the group was ar­rest­ed by po­lice while they were trav­el­ling along Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, in a pan­el van. Mur­der charges were lat­er laid by Sgt Go­sine of the St James Po­lice Sta­tion. The group's le­gal team in­clud­ed Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan and at­tor­neys Richard Clarke-Wills, Kirk Hogan and Owen Hinds Jr. Ap­pear­ing for the State are Dana See­ta­hal, SC, and pros­e­cu­tor Ker­ry-Ann By­er.


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