JUSTICE Frank Holder, the presiding judge in the Stewartville murder trial voir  dire (a trial within a trial), will rule on Monday morning whether or not the prosecution has made out a case against the two accused — Peter Ray Kassim, called ‘Donkey’, and Satanand Sahadeo, called ‘Boyso’. On the evening of June 29, 2005, 34-year-old Vishnu Santi departed his home at Stewartville, W.C.D in his car, going to buy bottled water and paper cups for his mother, Dhanphattie Santi, and to visit his girlfriend at Ociean View, Uitvlugt, W.C.D.
He returned home shortly after 9pm, parked his car, and was heading upstairs when he was confronted by bandits with guns. He shouted for his niece, Vanessa, and for his father, exclaiming, “Daddy, they gon shoot me!”
Several shots rang out when Frank Santi, Vishnu’s father, rushed from his bedroom to see what was happening to his son. He found Vishnu on the stairs   bleeding profusely.
Vishnu Santi was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
On July 1, 2005, Dr. Nepaul Singh performed a post-mortem on the body of Vishnu Santi, and recovered two bullets from his body. Dr. Singh gave the cause of Vishnu’s death as shock and haemorrhage caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
David Boucher of Stewartville Pasture, one of the witnesses, had testified that he had seen when the attack was made on the deceased. He testified that, one day, he was at his home when the accused Sahadeo visited him and actually told him, in the presence of witnesses, events of the day when he shot and killed Santi. Sahadeo had said that he had since thrown the gun into muddy water, and had requested the witness to clean the gun for him.
During the voir dire, Defence Counsels Mr. Hukumchand and Mr. George Thomas had made no-case submissions, pointing out that a sufficient case had not been made out against the accused, and that the accused should be discharged at this stage.
Conversely, the leading Prosecutor, Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin, and her fellow prosecutor, Miss Renita Singh, are contending that the Prosecution had established its case.