At Berbice Assizes…
JUSTICE Winston Patterson, on Wednesday, upheld submissions by Defence Counsel Mursalene Bacchus and directed the Berbice Assizes jury to formally acquit poison murder accused Kemraj Gopaul called ‘Buddy’. Gopaul, of Vryheid, West Canje, had allegedly given a box cyanide laced juice, intended for his son, to Priya Singh, his pregnant former sister-in-law, who drank it and died on August 17, 2005.

Justice Patterson said the trial was a travesty, as witnesses must give evidence in a truthful manner.

He said the more the evidence is perused, it is proven that there appeared to be some measure of deliberateness in it

The judge noted that the case for the State was one of transfer of malice but,  although it was established that the victim succumbed as a result of cyanide poisoning, the Prosecution failed to prove that the accused knew the juice contained the deadly substance.

Justice Patterson said the forensic pathologist did not certify the death of  Singh and there was no nexus to prove that the body parts removed from the corpse were the same that were analysed.

The judge, reviewing the testimony, said ex-policeman Leslie Junior had testified that the samples were placed in a white bottle with a red cork marked LJ51BD, while Police Analyst Stephen Greaves said he examined the contents from a red and white bottle marked LJ52BD.

Cross-examined by Bacchus, Junior admitted that he got mixed up other  similar exhibits.

“There are several instances where the evidence was destroyed in cross- examination. That tells volumes,” Justice Patterson remarked.

Other Prosecution witness Devi Singh told the Court the box containing the juice was multicoloured but the colour pink was most highlighted. However, another witness, Roslyn Lepps said the main colours on the box were yellow, white and green.

In answer to Bacchus, Lepps said she knew the colour pink but it was not on the box.

The judge concluded that the case is so devoid of potent evidence that he wondered what was going on.

Blame

He continued: “I am not going to blame the Police, entirely, nor cast total blame on the other witnesses. The kernel in the case is that there is a possibility that the exhibits got mixed up. The analyst was honest but there seemed to be some game playing here somewhere. One police said the box was sealed while another alleged it was not. Imagine two lives are gone.

“How can a case of this nature get so mixed up,” Justice Paterson asked.

He said: “The doctor admitted that he was not a toxicologist but was convinced that death was due to cyanide. But, procedurally, he had to wait until he received the analyst report to confirm it. The items were sent to be analysed on August 18, 2005 but were not uplifted until December 5, 2005.”

The Prosecution, conducted by State Counsel Donelle Mc Cammon, was that, on August 17, 2005, sisters Devi and Priya Singh went to Aussie King’s Shop in Mount Sinai, West Canje, where they saw Gopaul and he gave Pryia a ‘Motorola’ cell phone and charger, instructing her to give them to another of her siblings, Devika.

Gopaul also gave Priya the box of juice to be given to his three-year-old son, Rajendra Singh.

The sisters left the shop and stopped at their grandfather’s residence where they saw their father and made him read the expiration date on the juice box.

The expectant mother sipped from the juice, then complained of pain in the throat and asked for water before being taken to New Amsterdam Hospital where she expired.

In his post mortem report, Dr. Vivikanand Brijmohan said the mouth of the deceased smelt like bitter almonds and the stomach was full of undigested food material with intense reddish colour while the generative organ had a full term dead female foetus.

Directing his comments to the acquitted man, the judge told him: ”You, like all of us, have a conscience and you are guided by it. A woman and her unborn child have gone to the great beyond. Heavens knows what happened. Buddy, have a nice day. You are discharged.”