Star witness admits lapse in memory at PI
STAR witness for the Prosecution in the Den Amstel murder case at the Demerara Assizes, Ryan Lewis alias ‘Bow Foot’, admitted under cross-examination Wednesday that, he did not tell the magistrate at the Preliminary Inquiry (PI), he was holding a child in his left hand when he kicked down a door in answer to screams from the victim, Claudine Rampersaud. Asked, by Defence Counsel Nigel Hughes, why he did not tell the magistrate the story he told Justice Roxanne George and the jury, the witness said, although the incident was fresher in his mind in the Magistrate’s Court, he might have forgotten to mention it.
Lewis was testifying at the trial of Dwayne Jordan, who is indicted for the unlawful killing of his reputed wife, Claudine Rampersaud.
Lewis had previously told the judge and jury that, on that night, he and his wife, Shellon, were walking along Clay Brick Street, in the West Coast Demerara village, when the screams of Rampersaud caused him to enter a yard and climb the stairs to an  abandoned house from where the shouts came.
On Wednesday, he explained to the court that both he and his wife were unarmed that night and he  had a four-year-old girl child resting on his shoulder while his wife had a small boy, in her arms, too.
Lewis said he and his wife went up the stairs together but she was slightly in front of him. When he reached the landing of the once abandoned house, he was still holding the child but kicked down the door with his right foot.
He recalled that the house was dark and he could not see anybody but his wife, who was slightly in front of him, when he received the first blow with a hatchet.
Then he received the next blow with the hatchet and he grabbed the hand with the weapon and there was a scuffle between him and the man who was also armed with a knife. They rolled down the steps, during which time, the other man was cut with his own knife in the abdomen and Lewis was wounded in the back.
Lewis said when they hit the ground, with the aid of light from a nearby house, he recognised that the man was the accused.
“I ran a short distance and collapsed. When I regained consciousness, I was in hospital. It was after speaking with persons who visited me at the hospital that I was able to formulate the story,” he testified.
Lewis will be further cross-examined when the trial resumes.
Conducting the prosecution are State Counsel Prithima Kissoon and Konyo Sandiford.