High Court judge Malcolm Holdip has instructed jurors in the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder trial to leave their emotions out of their deliberations in the case. He gave the advice in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court yesterday as he began summing up the State’s case against the ten men charged with the crime to the 12-member jury and three alternates, who will decide their guilt or innocence.
While Holdip appealed to the jury to use common sense when analysing the evidence presented by State prosecutors over the past two years, he said emotions may cloud their judgment.
“This can cause you to jump to conclusions. You are to be impartial and unemotional. Don’t speculate and be fair to both sides,” Holdip said. He also advised them to concentrate only on the evidence presented in court and ignore media coverage of the case.
Holdip only began to touch on the voluminous evidence presented during the protracted trial during yesterday’s hearing. Briefly refering to inconsistencies raised by defence attorneys, Holdip said they were free to make their own conclusions.
“The deciding of the facts is your job, not mine but do not substitute what I tell you on the law,” Holdip said.
Prosecutors began leading evidence in the high profile case in March 2014. Naipaul-Coolman was abducted from her Chaguanas home 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.
Prosecutors contend that she was held captive at a house in Upper La Puerta, Diego Martin, before she was killed, dismembered and her body disposed of.
Besides circumstantial evidence collected in the community, prosecutors have also presented a blood stained roll of duct tape which was found in the single storey red brick house, which DNA testing linked to the former Xtra Foods chief executive and a gun, found at the home of one of the accused, which was matched to spent shells recovered at the scene of the kidnapping.
The State’s main witness Keon Gloster, was allegedly present at the time of Naipaul-Coolman’s murder but did not participate. He was deemed a hostile witness by prosecutors after he repeatedly claimed that he was coerced by police into signing a series of sworn statement implicating the accused men, most of whom he are related.
Despite recanting his evidence in court, his statements were read to the jury and tendered into evidence. Holdip will continue his summation this morning. He is expected to finish by next week and then the jury will be given the opportunity to deliberate.
Who’s in court
The ten men before the jury and Justice Malcolm Holdip 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.
Raphael William, was charged with the crime but died in prison in 2011 of complications from sickle-cell anaemia.
Allan “Scanny” Martin was on trial before he was shot dead by police after staging a daring prison break in Port-of-Spain in July last year. Justice Holdip freed the 13th accused man Joel Fraser in January after upholding a no case submission in which his attorneys claimed that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the crime.
Legal team
Their legal team includes Joseph Pantor, Selwyn Mohammed, Lennox Sankersingh, Ian Brooks, Wayne Sturge, Mario Merritt, Colin Selvon, Vince Charles, Christian Chandler, Delicia Helwig and Alexia Romero.
The prosecution team includes Senior Counsel Israel Khan and Gilbert Peterson who are being assisted by senior state prosecutors Joy Balkaran and Kelly Thompson.
Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal was also part of the prosecution team before she was assassinated in May 2014.