At Berbice Assizes…
THE victim in the discharging loaded firearm and wounding case at the Berbice Assizes, Roopwattie Taijnarine, was cross-examined by Defence Counsel Mursalene Bacchus yesterday when the trial of her ex-husband, Krishna Ticadari, resumed at the Berbice Assizes.

She recalled that, in company with three others, she was sitting in the verandah of a house at Number 67, Corentyne, when she got up to go and spit and saw the accused standing in front of a vacant lot opposite.

The woman said he had something looking like a gun in one hand, a long pipe with a length of wood attached behind it.

She said the improvised firearm was pointed in her direction, causing her to be fearful and, whilst attempting to leave the verandah, she felt a burning sensation on her back and called out to Mahase, another occupants of the house, telling him: “Kumar shoot me.”

Taijnarine said she could not remember whether the magistrate was told the accused wore all over black but it was recorded that she looked at him for 20 seconds.

Re-examined by State Prosecutor Fabio Azore, the witness said the house that was closest to the vacant lot had electric light in the verandah and it allowed her to see the face of the shooter.

However, she said she did not tell that to the magistrate at the Preliminary Inquiry (PI), because she was not asked.

Earlier, Justice Brassington Reynolds, presiding, admitted in evidence the deposition of the dead Detective Constable George Bastiani.

The judge overruled an objection, by Bacchus, to the admission.

That ruling followed days of legal arguments in a voir dire (trial within a trial) occasioned by Bacchus contending that the attestation was more prejudicial than probative.

After the judge ruled, former Magistrate’s Court clerk Denise Ram, through whom the document was tendered, said Bastiani gave his evidence-in-chief before Magistrate K. Persaud, in the presence of Police Prosecutor M. Grant and then Defence Counsel Marcel Crawford, S.C.

In the testament, read by Ram, Bastiani is recorded as saying he received a report on December 31, 2007, at 22:55 h and, as a consequence, went to Skeldon Public Hospital where he met Taijnarine, a patient in the Female Ward.

The deponent testified that the injured woman gave him a lead pellet after telling him something and he proceeded to Number 67 Village at the home of Saheran Subranine, where a search yielded five other pellets.

Bastiani said he took possession of all the pellets, placed them in two marked envelopes, made an entry in the General Property Book and handed them over to the Subordinate Officer-in-Charge at Springlands Police Station.

The deponent is also quoted as stating that, on February 7, 2007, the envelopes were uplifted and taken to the Police Ballistics Department, where the parcels were given to Sergeant Jackson for analysis.

Bastiani said the envelopes and two analyst certificates were returned on March 3, 2007 and, three days later, tendered and admitted as exhibits at Springlands Court.

Under cross-examination, by Crawford then, the witness swore he would never lie under oath and, if he said anything contrary, with respect to sealing and marking of the packages, it would be a mistake.
The trial is continuing.