Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
This is a clear case of murder, not self-defence.
These were the words used by lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC, to summarise the case of six police officers on trial for murdering three friends from Moruga in 2011.
Presenting his closing address in the case to the 12-member jury before High Court Judge Carla Brown-Antoine at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Peterson sought to list the evidence that he suggested clearly demonstrated that the officers murdered Abigail Johnson, Kerron Eccles, and Alana Duncan when they shot at the Nissan B15 they were driving in on July 22, 2011.
Peterson noted that there was absolutely no evidence that the trio shot at the officers at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore and they (the officers) returned fire in self-defence.
“There is no evidence of any shooting from the B15,” Peterson said.
He noted that while Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, Antonio Ramadin exercised their constitutional right to not testify in their defence after the State closed its case against them, evidence from one of them claiming they were shot at could have changed the complexity of the case as an eyewitness and CCTV footage of the incident did not corroborate their claim.
“This case had a lot of evidence but it is simple,” Peterson said.
He noted that gunshot damage to the rear of the officers’ vehicles was not plausible based on the location of the trio’s car and the fact the front of the police vehicles faced the road.
Peterson also called on the jury to consider the fact that based on the evidence of the first responder on the scene of the shooting, the vehicle the trio was driving in was moved before crime scene investigators arrived.
He noted that the only witness who claimed that a gun was found in the car was WPC Nicole Clement, who was initially charged alongside her colleagues before she was made a State witness.
Peterson pointed out that the officers’ lawyers had questioned Clement’s mental health after she refused to testify due to alleged “health and safety concerns”.
He stated that Clement’s evidence during the preliminary inquiry of the case, in which she claimed that two of the friends survived the initial barrage of gunshots on their vehicle but were executed at a second location, was unchallenged as she refused to answer any questions when she attended the trial.
“She never said that she lied,” Peterson said, as he noted that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, would have to determine her fate for allegedly breaching her plea deal.
“Sometimes to get evidence against the brood, we have to make a deal with one of the chicks,” Peterson said, as he noted that the deal was permitted in law.
In a bid to highlight how Clement’s claims over what transpired were plausible, Peterson noted that although the officers claimed that they took the trio to the hospital for treatment immediately following the shooting, hospital records showed that they arrived over an hour and 15 minutes later.
“An hour and 15 minutes for a 15 minute journey. How can that be explained away? It can not,” Peterson said.
Peterson also claimed that defence attorneys were unable to challenge forensic evidence gathered at a dirt track off the M2 Ring Road in Woodland, where Clement alleged Eccles and Duncan were executed.
He noted that spent shells recovered on the scene and bullet fragments removed from Duncan’s body during her autopsy were linked to a firearm that was assigned to one of the officers.
He also sought to rubbish claims that the evidence was planted by Clement in a bid to absolve herself.
“That is a flight of fantasy. Dick Tracy business,” Peterson said.
Stating that the jury could still convict the officers even if they did not believe Clement’s version of the events, Peterson noted that their intention was to murder Duncan’s common-law husband Shumba James.
He pointed out that James, who was allegedly wanted for murder, could have easily been arrested as he reported to the St Mary’s Police Post three times weekly as part of his bail conditions for a robbery charge including hours before the shooting.
“Their intention was never to arrest Shumba James,” Peterson said.
He called on the jury to carefully consider the evidence using common sense.
“It all adds up,” he said.
Justice Brown-Antoine is then expected to summarise the evidence and legal issues in the case to the jury over three days next week before they are allowed to deliberate on the officers’ guilt or innocence.
The officers are represented by Israel Khan, SC, Ulric Skerritt, and Arissa Maharaj. The State is also being represented by Elaine Greene, Giselle Ferguson-Heller, and Katiesha Ambrose-Persadsingh.
