A former amateur boxer appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of 22-year-old United Kingdom national Adrian St John who was shot dead during a robbery at Mt D’Or on April 10.
Maldon Pascall, 24, of Hillsdale Crescent, Mt Hope Road, Mt Hope, appeared before Senior Magistrate Gillian David-Scotland in the Tunapuna Magistrates’ court yesterday.
According to reports, around 8.30 pm on the night of the incident, St John, who was vacationing in T&T, was driving a Nissan AD wagon along Upper Gordon Street, Mt D’Or Road, when he stopped to pick up the son of one of two of his female passengers.
Police said as he was leaving the poorly lit area, two men with T-shirts covering their faces approached and robbed the two women and St John of cash and other valuables.
They then told St John to drive off. As he was doing so one of the men fired a single shot in the direction of the car, hitting him in the head. St John was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where he died while being treated.
St John was born in England to a Trinidadian father and spent the first seven years of his life in T&T before migrating to the UK. He was reportedly already taking steps to become a citizen of this country in pursuit of his plans to play one day for the West Indies.
Pascall surrendered to police the day after the shooting and was eventually charged with the crime last Friday. Pascall represented this country as an under-20 boxer at the Caribbean Boxing Championship in 2009 where he won a gold medal. He also won a medal at the T&T Boxing Championship the following year.
Pascall was charged by Cpl Glen Payne of the Region Two Homicide Bureau. He was represented by Adana Bain.
Also appearing before David-Scotland yesterday was 29-year-old Kenrick Williams, who is charged with murdering 21-year-old Aaron Ramsaroop in Maracas/St Joseph in an unrelated incident.
Both Pascall and Williams will reappear before David-Scotland on May 16.