At Berbice Assizes
JUSTICE Winston Patterson on Tuesday issued a Bench warrant for retired Police Inspector Colbert Halley, who failed to attend Court at the Berbice Assizes to testify in the murder trial of Sewdial Ramroop known as Andy and Deocharran Gobin called Clem.

The judge took the action after receiving the sworn evidence of Detective Corporal Primer Sam, who informed the Court that he had gone to the Manchester, Corentyne residence of the former policeman, who claimed he was experiencing financial difficulty and could ill afford to travel to New Amsterdam.

The witness said he returned to Halley’s home on Monday afternoon and was told by the latter that a Police vehicle will have to transport him.

Earlier, State Prosecutor Dionne Mc Cammon sought an adjournment, noting that the Prosecution had exhausted its two available witnesses.

It was after she approached the Bench, together with Defence Counsel Kim Kyte-John and Adrian Anamayah, that the judge issued the warrant and adjourned the proceedings to tomorrow morning.

The Prosecutor had asked the Court to allow the witness, Detective Corporal Gilbert Ross to return and identify the exhibits as they were not available when he testified.

In his testimony, the witness said he had swabbed the accused persons’ hands and their clothing for gunpowder residue and submitted a green vest, a multi-coloured shirt and two swabs to the Police Analyst Department, at Eve Leary for testing.

Ross said, on September 26, 2003, he uplifted the exhibits with his markings GR 10 BD to GR13 BD with Analyst Seal Number 95 and tendered them in the lower Court at the preliminary inquiry (PI) but has not seen them since, despite searches.

GUNPOWDER RESIDUE
Under cross-examination by Kyte-John, who is representing Ramroop, the witness said, as far as he knows, no gunpowder residue was found on the hands of any of the accused, neither was any found on the vest belonging to Ramroop.

Ross said Ramroop did not object to the swabbing of his hands. However, the witness could not say whether there would be more gunpowder on the hand of a shooter who would have fired several rounds.

Answering Anamayah, Ross said he did not swab the toes nor head of the accused but the hand which is normally used to pull the trigger.

On Monday, when the trial commenced, the main witness for the Prosecution, Veremootoo Armagon called Mootoo, cross-examined by Kyte-John, said the motor car in which they were was facing East when four gunshots were heard.

He said he crept and re-entered the vehicle but, while outside it, he told the victim, Rohan Rampersaud, that he was shot and the latter instructed him to drive.

The witness said he first noticed blood on Rohan when he was seated in the car but no bullet hit him while he was in it.

Armagon said on entering the car on the driver’s side, he looked over his left shoulder for one to two seconds and saw the accused running about 60 or 70 feet away.

He agreed that, when the shooting occurred in 2003, it was fresher in his mind but insisted that he told the magistrate the accused persons had turned around causing him to see their faces.

However, on perusing the original deposition, he was finding it difficult to understand the magistrate’s handwriting and the judge allowed him to read the typewritten version.

After a few minutes, though, the Prosecutor had to intervene after the witness confessed that he could not read well.

Armagon conceded that, if the Prosecutor said the words were not there, it was so.

Another person
The witness said he spoke to his family members first after the incident and admitted that another person was arrested on the night of the incident.

He said investigators never swabbed his hand for gun powder deposits.

Questioned by Anamayah, the hire car driver said he drank beers with the victim after work on weekends but did not tell the magistrate that he had taken the Police to the home of Gobin, who is disabled.

In her opening address, Mc Cammon told the jury, on which there is only one woman, that, on September 24, 2003, at about 23:00h, Persaud, Seecharan and his friend Mootoo were in the car belonging to the deceased.

Seecharan was taking his friend home at Fourth Street,Tain, Corentyne and, when the vehicle stopped in the vicinity of a culvert in the neighborhood and the men disembarked to converse, shots were fired, hitting Mootoo on his shoulder.

Mc Cammon said the men hurriedly re-entered the car with Seecharan in the passenger seat and Mootoo behind the wheel.

However, when Mootoo looked in the rear view mirror, he saw Ramroop and the other accused and alerted his parents who lived three house lots away.

Mc Cammon said the Police were summoned and Seecharan was taken to Port Mourant Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Subsequently, a post mortem examination, performed by Dr. Vivikanand Brijmohan, established tha
t death was due to shock and haemorrhage and gunshot injuries.

The dead man was buried at Babu John Cemetery on September 27, 2003.
The trial is continuing.