The ten men still on trial for the murder of businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman have all chosen not to testify in their own defence.
During a hearing in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday, each of the accused men individually informed presiding Judge Malcolm Holdip they did not wish to take the witness stand to respond to the case presented against them by State prosecutors.
Only one of the men, Keida Garcia, indicated he wanted to call a witness to testify in his defence, another option made available to them after the State closed its case last November.
After Garcia’s witness, who was not identified yesterday, testifies before the 12-member jury and three alternates next Monday, prosecutors will be given an opportunity to cross-examine him.
Defence attorneys representing the accused men will then have to decide if the wish to deliver a closing address to the jury, before Holdip sums up the case to them and allows them to deliberate over their clients’ innocence or guilt.
Prosecutors will only be able to present their own closing address only if the accused men elect to utilise their option. Naipaul-Coolman was abducted from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Chaguanas, on December 19, 2006. A $122,000 ransom was paid by her family but she was not released and her body has never been found.
Since the trial began in March 2014, prosecutors have claimed that the former Xtra Foods chief executive was held captive at a house in Upper La Puerta, Diego Martin, before she was eventually executed and her body disposed of.
The evidence presented during the trial included circumstantial evidence recovered at the men’s homes in the community and an illegal gun that was found at the home of one of the accused men that was allegedly linked to spent shells found on the scene of the businesswoman’s kidnapping.
Prosecutors are relying on the sworn statements of their main witness, Keon Gloster, who allegedly witnessed the murder but did not participate. However, Gloster has repeatedly claimed he was coerced by police into implicating the accused men, most of whom are his relatives. Gloster was deemed a hostile witness and his statements were tendered into evidence and read to the jury.
Last Friday, Holdip upheld a no-case submission for another accused Joel Fraser, whose attorneys claimed there was no evidence presented by the State linking their client to the crime and Fraser walked free.
Who’s in court
A total of 12 men went on trial before the jury and Justice Malcolm Holdip charged for the crime in March 2014.
They are twin brothers Shervon and Devon Peters, and their older brother Anthony Dwayne Gloster, siblings Keida and Jamille Garcia, brothers Marlon and Earl Trimmingham, Ronald Armstrong, Antonio Charles and Lyndon James.
A 13th man, Raphael Williams, was charged with the crime but died in prison in 2011 of complications from sickle-cell anaemia. Allan “Scanny” Martin was on trial for the majority of the case before he was shot dead by police after staging a daring prison break from the Port-of-Spain State Prison in July last year. Joel Fraser was freed after the judge found there was insufficient evidence to refer his case to the jury.
Legal teams
Their team includes Ulric Skerritt, Joseph Pantor, Selwyn Mohammed, Lennox Sankersingh, Ian Brooks, Wayne Sturge, Mario Merritt, Richard Valere, Colin Selvon, Vince Charles, Christian Chandler, Delicia Helwig and Alexia Romero. The prosecution includes Senior Counsel Israel Khan and Gilbert Peterson, assisted by senior state prosecutors Joy Balkaran and Kelly Thompson.