Judge accepts dying declaration in murder case
JUSTICE William Ramlal, on Monday, accepted, as a dying declaration, what Nellie Gittens said her daughter, victim of the West Front Road murder, told her.
The woman testified that her daughter said: “Mommy, Paul knocked me down with a motorcycle. He then picked me up and bored me.” Paul Bagot is on trial, at the Demerara Assizes, for the unlawful killing of Abigale Gittens.
The witness said she had arrived at the hospital, where her daughter was a patient, at midnight and spent 15 minutes in the Emergency Room when the teen exclaimed: “Oh God, Mommy I am going to die, I cannot make it.”

“After she said those words, I then held her hand. She then said she is going to tell me the truth,” the mother said.

According to her testimony, Abigale said she was walking on West Front Road and, when she reached the Soldier Scheme entrance, the accused rode up on a motorcycle and knocked her down. He jumped off the motorcycle and started stabbing her and she fell.
The witness said she asked her daughter if she was sure it is Paul who stabbed her and she said: “Yes Mommy.”

Defence Counsel Hukumchand suggested to the witness that her daughter could not have spoken at the hospital and, therefore, did not make the dying declaration but the woman denied the suggestion.

Hukumchand cited the evidence of a doctor who stated that, from the amount of blood that was gushing from the wound in her neck, the girl would not have been in a position to speak.

The lawyer pointed out that, although Gittens said a porter and a nurse were about a foot away from her when her daughter was, allegedly, making the declaration, neither of them was called to give supporting evidence.

The judge conducted a voir dire (trial within a trial) to determine the admissibility of the attestation before ruling to accept it.
The case for the Prosecution is being presented by State Counsel Rhondel Weaver and Shivani Balcharan.