More than 12 years after naturalised United States (US) citizen Balram “Balo” Maharaj was kidnapped and murdered, the last of the 14 people initially accused of the crime has been freed.
Kidnapping for ransom and murder charges against Kenneth Pierre were dropped when the case came up for hearing before Justice Maria Wilson in the Port-of-Spain High Court on Monday.
State prosecutors said Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard had filed notices of discontinuance as his office no longer wished to prosecute Pierre.
Pierre’s brother was extradited to the US and sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
Despite the legal victory, Pierre could not celebrate with his family. He was immediately taken to back to the prison as he still has a pending trial for another kidnapping and murder case which took place a year after Maharaj’s.
Gaspard’s move brings the prosecution of Maharaj’s murder to an end as other people accused of the crime, including Maharaj’s wife Doreen Alexander-Durity, have either been extradited to the US or freed.
Maharaj, 62, who had served in the US Army in Vietnam, was vacationing at his relatives’ home at Chandy Lane, El Socorro, San Juan, when he was abducted from the Samaan Tree Bar in Aranjuez, on April 6, 2005.
Before his death, Maharaj had received a US$4.5 million settlement in a workplace injury claim in New York.
A $3 million ransom was reportedly demanded for his safe release. However, on January 8, 2006, police recovered his dismembered body which was placed in a shipping barrel and buried a forested area in Grand Curacaye, Santa Cruz.
Pierre was among 14 men, many of them former soldiers, arrested in connection with the murder. Jason Percival, Russel Joseph, Winston Gittens, Leon Nurse, Ricardo De Four, Zion Clarke, Kevon Demerieux, Anderson Straker, Wayne Pierre, Christopher Sealy, Kevin Nixon and David Suchit were extradited to Washington, DC, to face trail in a US District Court.
Percival, Joseph, Gittens and Nurse pleaded guilty to being involved in Maharaj’s kidnapping and were each sentenced to a just over ten years in prison. All the others, except Suchit, pleaded not guilty were eventually convicted by a jury and given life sentences. Suchit was acquitted by the jury and deported to Trinidad.
Maharaj’s ex-wife, with whom he has a son, was extradited to the US in April last year. Alexander-Durity, who US law enforcement agents described as the mastermind behind the crime, pleaded guilty and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
In March 2014, the DPP’s office also discontinued the case against former Special Forces soldier Ricardo Stephenson.