kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
After spending 17 years in prison, it took reputed drug lord Phillip “The Boss” Boodram less than three months to meet his demise as police shot him and two alleged accomplices yesterday.
Reports stated that Central Division police responded to a robbery in the Couva area around 1 pm.
As they tried to intercept a silver Isuzu D-Max pickup along Esperanza Road, California, the occupants of the pickup fired several shots.
The officers returned fire, striking all three men.
The officers took the men to the Couva District Health Facility for treatment, but they were already dead.
They identified Boodram of Dow Village, California.
The other men were identified as Malick Paul of Railway Road and Gerard Thorington of Goodwill Road, Enterprise.
Police officers at the scene said they recovered three illegal firearms.
The officers took the men to the Couva District Health Facility for treatment, but they were already dead. They identified Boodram of Dow Village, California. Police recovered several loaded firearms from the suspects’ pickup.
In June, appellate judges Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Prakash Moosai upheld an appeal from Boodram, Roger Mootoo, Ricky Singh, Kervin Williams and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie. The judges set the men free of manslaughter and a 28-year-old conviction for kidnapping and burying businesswoman Samdaye Rampersad alive.
Masked men kidnapped Rampersad in front of her home in Petit Bourg, San Juan, on November 25, 2005. Police found her corpse in a shallow grave in a cashew field in Carolina Village, Claxton Bay. Forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes testified that an autopsy of Rampersad’s body showed she died of asphyxia and suffocation consistent with being buried alive.
The judges found multiple errors made by the High Court Judge who presided at their second trial in 2016. Yorke-Soo Hon said the panel viewed the serious nature of the errors made by the trial judge, the multiple material irregularities identified and adverse publicity during the trial severely compromised its fairness.
“Combined with the issues surrounding the evidence of the prosecution’s main witness, Roderique, our hands are tied, and we have no alternative but to allow this appeal,” Yorke-Soo Hon said.
In an unrelated incident homicide detectives are probing the murder of a known firearm and drug offender in Siparia on Friday night.
Despite passersby gathering quickly around Curtis Hospedales after a gunman shot him several times, he died on the roadside.
A report stated that Hospedales, 48, a labourer of Quarry Village, Siparia, was standing near the Siparia Market along High Street when around 7pm, a gunman shot him in the chest and ran off.