– police witness confirms daughter positively identified accused as mother’s killer

POLICE witness Inspector Nolan Burnett testified Thursday that he was there on April 25, 2015 when, during an identification parade, star witness, Romona Sanasie pointed out the accused as the person who shot her mother.

Burnett’s testimony is in relation to the trial into the execution-style killing on January 12, 2015 of Patricia Sanasie, which is being heard in the Demerara High Court before Justice Brassington Reynolds and a 12-member jury.

The senior policeman told the court that back then, he was stationed at the Brickdam branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) when the report of the murder came in.

Burnett said that being a gazetted officer, it fell to him to conduct the ID Parade in which the accused, Richard Stanton, was placed in a line-up along with eight other men of similar features and build.

That parade, he said, was done at CID headquarters in Eve Leary, using the one-way mirror system, whereby the witness, on this occasion the deceased’s daughter, Ramona, would be hidden from the view of the nine men lined up in the adjoining room.

Burnett said that on the day of the parade, he apprised the accused, Stanton, of what was about to happen, and that following the preparation of a C-19 form, he, the accused, and one Sergeant Rodwell Sarrabo each affixed their signatures on the document.

The nine men in the line-up, Burnett said, were each given a number, between one and nine. Meanwhile, Romona Sanasie was cautioned before the viewing that the person who shot her mother may or may not be in the line-up, but that should she see him, she must identify him by the number he is holding.

Burnett recalled that Romona Sanasie took a long hard look at the men before her, and when she was done told him ‘something’ and then complained of feeling unwell and asked to be allowed to “take some fresh air”.

But on her return to the room, she again complained of feeling unwell and asked to be excused once more. On regaining her composure, however, she asked that the person holding the number, three, who happened to be Stanton, turn north, then south; and after she was satisfied, she told the police that he was the one who had gunned down her mother.

Burnett said that immediately she did, he told the accused, Stanton, that he was positively identified by a witness, and his response was: “I is not no murder man; I wasn’t there.”

TELL-TALE SCAR

Asked under cross-examination by Defence Attorney, Mark Waldron, whether he knew that the accused had a scar under his right eye, Burnett replied in the affirmative.

He, however, denied having any prior knowledge about the accused, as he was not told “certain things” by the witness, Romona Sanasie, as to the description, or how the suspect who shot her mother was dressed on the night in question, and as such he was unaware of some details.

Burnett told the court that when Romona Sanasie picked out Stanton on the parade, she said he had similar features to the man who shot her mother.

In presenting the State’s case, Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken told the court that at about 06:45hrs on January 12, 2015, tragedy struck Atlantic Gardens, East Coast Demerara, outside the home of the victim, Patricia Senasie.

As she exited her car to open her gate with her daughter inside the said vehicle, a car came up and she was shot five times by the accused, who walked to her then back to the car he came in which sped off.

The mortally injured woman was taken to GPHC where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

She related that the police conducted an investigation and the accused was charged for the offence.