A Point Fortin man who posed as a PH driver to prey on women yesterday pleaded guilty to six charges, including robbery, kidnapping, rape and manslaughter. One of his victims suffered fatal head injuries when she jumped out of his car.
Jude John Arjoon, 35, admitted to picking up his three victims—two on the same day—on April 28 and May 24, 2005. He has been in prison awaiting trial since his arrest in July 2005.
State attorney Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal, who read the facts of the case in the San Fernando Second Assizes, said at around 5 pm on April 28, 2005, one of the victims, who was heading to her Penal home, boarded Arjoon’s cream/off white car at Harris Promenade, San Fernando. Arjoon instead took her to a gravel track off Hermitage Road, Debe, where he robbed her of a cell phone and wallet and asked for the PIN number for her bank account.
He allegedly told her: “Make sure yuh give me the correct number or else I will blow off your f..... brains.”
The woman gave him the number. He then showed her another woman’s driver’s permit and three passport size photos of young children and told her he had to “buss she throat” because she did not give him her PIN number.
Arjoon could not tie the women’s hands because her left arm stopped just under her elbow. Instead he put her in the trunk of his vehicle and drove off. Sometime later he stopped the car and again asked her for the PIN number.
He later picked up another passenger, Mary Baldeo-Waheed, in San Fernando.
Dougdeen-Jaglal told the court that around 5.40 pm, a motorist was driving along the M2 Ring Road when he saw the back door of a car open and someone jump out. The motorist found Baldeo-Waheed lying face down in the grass groaning. She died at the San Fernando General Hospital the following day from a blunt force head injury. When he was arrested, Arjoon told the police he picked up Baldeo-Waheed at Broadway and told her he was going to pick up his child in Bel Air so she would not panic.
The court heard that after Baldeo-Waheed jumped out off the car, Arjoon went to Hermitage Village where he stopped, took his other victim out of the trunk and raped her twice in the back seat. He then left her there.
In May 2005 at around 12.20 pm, Arjoon picked up the third woman in Marabella. She asked to be taken to Vistabella but he took her to Cipero Road, again claiming he had to pick up his daughter. She asked him to let her out of the car and tried to open the door but it was locked.
He took the woman to the M2 Ring Road where he robbed her of a $1,000 cell phone and her wallet and asked her for the PIN numbers for her bank cards. The woman managed to open the car door but Arjoon grabbed her and ordered her into the trunk. She kicked Arjoon, who had a knife, and his lip began to bleed. He took out a gun and cut off her clothes.
The woman opened the trunk from the inside while the car was in motion and at the first sign of houses jumped out. She hit her head on a stone and only remembered being naked on the road. She was assisted by a passer-by.
When Arjoon was arrested at a house at Rancho Quemado, Erin, on July 5, 2005, he told the police: “Boss I had a bad childhood and ah sorry. Ah need help. Better allyuh kill meh and done.”
Arjoon’s attorney Ramesh Deena asked for a bio-social report from the prison before he did his mitigation plea. Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas granted his request and adjourned the matter to January 12.
Dougdeen Jaglal is being assisted by state attorney Anselm Leander in the matter.