State closes case –in Old Year’s Day 2009 murder trial
ON TRIAL: Steve Allicock
ON TRIAL: Steve Allicock

THE State on Monday closed its case in the 2009 Albouystown murder trial in the Georgetown High Court before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury.

The accused, Steve Allicock, allegedly murdered Wendell Tappin, 23, called “Wendell Keyco” of 88 James Street, Albouystown at about 16:00hrs on December 31, 2009.

Tappin was reportedly involved in an argument with another man who then stabbed him in his chest and escaped.

Tappin, a father of two, was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was stabbed to death during a row over a cell-phone battery.
Closing addresses were made by both the defence and the State, and the summing-up of the case is scheduled for Tuesday after which the jury will return with a verdict.

The State is being represented by Tuanna Hardy, Tameika Clarke and Seeta Bishundyal, and the defence by Maxwell McKay and Debra Kumar.

In leading his defence, Allicock elected to remain in the prisoner’s box where he gave a statement.

He said, “I was nowhere near at the time; I was in Suriname, and when I came back, I heard about the incident.”

One of the two final witnesses who testified on Monday was Dr. Vivekanand Bridgemohan who performed the post mortem on Tappin’s body on January 4, 2010.

He gave as the cause of death “shock and haemorrhage due to a stab wound to the heart.”

Dr. Bridgemohan told the court that besides several abrasions, Tappin’s body bore multiple stab wounds to the chest.

After testifying, the doctor, who is the pathologist assigned to Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), told the judge that he would like to say something.
That “something” was to apologise for not showing up in court on Friday.

It transpired that when the police went to Dr. Bridgemohan’s home to escort him to court that day, he barricaded himself in his house and refused to come out, which caused the trial to be stalled.

His action caused Justice Singh to issue an arrest warrant for him and the sister of the deceased, Natasha Tappin, who reportedly jumped through a window when the police went to her house to inform her that she had to attend court on Friday to give evidence.

Tappin told the court on Monday that around 15:30 to 16:00hrs on the day of the murder, she saw her brother, Wendell, lying in a pool of blood in front of a parked truck on Hill Street, Albouystown.

She related that she called out for help after she saw the condition he was in, and helped put him in a car and accompany him to the GPHC.

The witness recalled seeing a crowd around her brother’s bloodied body, but could not say how many persons were there, since she was crying and was not paying attention to such details.

When asked if she knew the accused, the witness replied in the affirmative, saying that he was a friend of hers and her sibling; that she used to see him often, but that since the incident, she was now seeing him for the first time. As she spoke, she pointed to Allicock, who was seated in the prisoner’s box.

Allicocks’ father, Leonard, and his uncle, Randolph, were also charged with Tappin’s murder, but were both freed.

 

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