Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (South) Joan Hon­ore-Paul has vowed to ex­pe­dite the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to Daniel Guer­ra's mur­der as the state em­barks on pa­per com­mit­tal pro­ceed­ings against po­lice de­tec­tive Dar­win Ghouralal.Ghouralal, 41, of La Ro­maine, is charged with mur­der­ing Guer­ra, 8, of Be­deau Street, Gas­par­il­lo, in Feb­ru­ary. The child's bloat­ed, se­mi-de­com­posed body was found float­ing in the Tarou­ba Riv­er, miles away from his Gas­par­il­lo home, days af­ter he went miss­ing.Yes­ter­day, de­fence at­tor­ney Sophia Chote, who, to­geth­er with at­tor­ney Michelle Solomon, rep­re­sents Ghouralal, ap­peared be­fore Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton in the San Fer­nan­do First Court where she in­di­cat­ed that she had dis­cus­sions with Hon­ore-Paul, in­struct­ed by Kr­ish­na Jaglal.

Chote said the state at­tor­ney, who was present in court, "agreed that the in­quiry will get off the ground as quick­ly as pos­si­ble...(Hon­ore-Paul) has in­di­cat­ed that she will be go­ing by way of pa­per com­mit­tal and she has as­sured me that (wit­ness) state­ments will be filed as quick­ly as pos­si­ble."Yes­ter­day's dis­cus­sions were held in the ab­sence of Ghouralal who did not ap­pear be­fore the San Fer­nan­do First Court since no pris­on­ers were brought to court be­cause of a spe­cial staff meet­ing be­tween ju­di­cia­ry ad­min­is­tra­tors, in­clud­ing Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, and court staff.This, Chote said, left her "a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed."

Ghouralal, who has 15 years ser­vice, was ar­rest­ed by Sgt An­der­son Par­ri­man and sub­se­quent­ly charged with mur­der­ing Guer­ra on a date un­known be­tween the pe­ri­od Feb­ru­ary 12 and Feb­ru­ary 21, 2011.Chote asked for the mat­ter to be ad­journed to next week so Ghouralal would be brought to court and he "can see where we are (in the pro­ceed­ings.")Welling­ton said he was will­ing to start the mat­ter. He said was cer­tain all the state­ments in the mat­ter would be filed be­fore he went on leave next month.

The de­fence, he in­di­cat­ed, would still have go through the state­ments to de­ter­mine which wit­ness they would want to cross-ex­am­ine.Chote in­di­cat­ed that she was aware that Se­nior Mag­is­trate In­dra Ramoo-Haynes would be pre­sid­ing the First Court in Welling­ton's ab­sence and she would have a num­ber of part-heard mat­ters to con­tin­ue."There are a lot of wit­ness­es from abroad and so on in this mat­ter...I do not want this mat­ter (to be) squeezed in with the oth­er mat­ters," Chote said."Is there an­oth­er court that will be will­ing to deal with this mat­ter?" she asked.

"This is a First Court mat­ter," Welling­ton said, as he in­di­cat­ed that he was not keen on trans­fer­ring the mat­ter.He said had the State filed the state­ments by May, the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry would have been com­plet­ed."To­day (yes­ter­day) be­ing June 14 if every­thing had been filed a month be­fore we would have been fin­ished," Welling­ton said.Chote, in de­fence of the State, said Hon­ore-Paul in­di­cat­ed that when she re­ceived the file she had a lot of ir­rel­e­vant ma­te­r­i­al she had to "weed out."

She re­newed her ap­pli­ca­tion to have Ghouralal brought to court next week on a short ad­journ­ment date so "he will know what is hap­pen­ing."Welling­ton agreed and ad­journed the mat­ter to June 22.Guer­ra's grand­par­ents Ran­dolph and Shirley In­dars­ingh at­tend­ed yes­ter­day's court hear­ing. The eight year old went miss­ing on Feb­ru­ary 18 af­ter a short trip to a par­lour near his home. Two days lat­er Guer­ra's body was found in the Tarou­ba Riv­er, miles away from his Gas­par­il­lo home.