At Berbice Assizes
THE Prosecution in the compact disc (CD) murder case closed Monday afternoon after State Prosecutor Ganesh Hira had called six witnesses.

Hira informed Justice Diana Insanally that he wanted to call five more but Rebecca and Walter Chinamootoo, siblings of the deceased are currently residing in Trinidad and the other three, Kenrick Sampson, Haridyal Balgobin and Meral Raymond could not be located.

However, Hira said, should Defence Counsel Kim Kyte-John insist on cross-examining them, further efforts will be made to have them appear in Court.

But the other lawyer declined the offer and the two lawyers are expected to engage in legal arguments today.

Earlier, Police Detective Sergeant Gravesande, through whom a statement by the accused, Dhanesh Raymond, was tendered, recalled that he was on duty

at Springlands Station on June 20, 2005, when the then suspect, alias Fat Boy, was shown to him.

The policeman said the allegation was put to Raymond that he murdered Cliff Alexander Chinamootoo on June 4, 2005,

According to the witness, the detained man, under caution, said he and the victim had a fight over a CD he had borrowed and, when they were separated, Chinamootoo exclaimed that he was wounded.

Gravesande said Raymond gave the same explanation in the admitted written attestation.

Kyte-John did not cross-examine him but, in answer to the jury, the witness said he did not find the murder weapon and could not say if there were eyewitnesses to the crime.

Police Lance Corporal Philbert Kendall, now stationed at Bartica, remembered entering a mini bus at Alness en route to Springlands, when, on Number 36 Public Road, he saw a man leaving a yard and stopping the same vehicle.

The witness said, shortly after, Raymond also joined the bus and, after a short drive, another passenger, Rishi Haridyal shouted, telling him that Police at Number 51 Station at Corentyne wanted xFat Boyx for the unlawful killing of Chinamootoo.

Kendall said he identified himself, as the Police officer, told Raymond of the accusation and cautioned him, to which his response was that, during a fight over a borrowed CD, the victim was injured with his own knife.

The witness said he took Raymond to Number 51 Station and later, the same night, escorted him to Springlands Station, where he was placed in the lock-ups.

A third policeman, Eman Fordyce said he received the report of the stabbing incident from Walter Chinamootoo, brother of the deceased, which caused him to visit the crime scene where he observed what appeared to be bloodstains on the eastern side of the Number 36 roadway.

SEARCHES
He said searches did not reveal anything of evidential value.

Fordyce said, on June 6, 2005, he witnessed the post mortem examination on the body of the dead man, by Dr V. Brijmohan, who determined that death was due to shock and haemorrhage resulting from a stab wound.

Mother of the deceased Minette Chinamootoo said, at the scene, her son told her that he had been stabbed by Raymond, whom she knew all his life.

She took her injured son to Port Mourant Hospital where the doctor on duty sutured the wound and sent the patient home.

Hours later, though, the woman said her son, the youngest of her five children, complained of pain and, at about 04:00 h the following morning, they returned to Port Mourant Hospital where the same doctor, after inspecting the wound, referred Raymond to New Amsterdam Hospital.

The witness said, on arrival there, her son was taken to the operating theatre but died on returning to the ward.

Replying to Kyte-John, the woman said her son and the accused were friends. They had been to school and worked together and shared no problems prior to the stabbing.

Joseph Alexander Chinamootoo, father of the dead man, said his son was buried at Number 36 Cemetery on June 8, 2005.

One more witness, Kowsilla Balgobin, a neighbour of the accused, testified that she was at home on the tragic afternoon when Raymondxs mother related something to her.

As a result, she ventured outside her neighbourxs yard and saw the accused, who was seated on a bench, take off his shirt and watch and throw them away but she picked up the things and handed them to his mother.