As Kwasi murder trial voir dire continues
THE KWASI Wilson murder trial voir dire (a trial within a trial) continued on Wednesday before Justice Roxanne George, who warned warring factions in the case to live in harmony and avoid clashes. The judge was expected to deliver her ruling on a defence no-case submission since Wednesday morning, but had same delayed in order to provide, among other things, for the prosecutor’s application to make further submissions.
The application was granted and the new submissions were made yesterday, in the absence of the jury, with defence counsel Mr. Compton Richardson taking the first bite.
He referred to two well-known cases which, according to him, did not subtract or add to the case for the prosecution or the defence.
He was followed by State Prosecutor Miss Konyo Sandiford, who cited similar cases that she hoped would persuade the judge to rule in favour of the prosecution.
Ms Konyo Sandiford is hoping that the ruling will call on the accused for a defence, and that the matter would be sent to the jury for their consideration and verdict.
Conversely, veteran lawyer, Mr Compton Richardson, whose decision to make no-case submissions followed the close of the prosecution’s case, was motivated by the fact that the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused was the person who had caused the death of the deceased.
In the substantive trial before the voir dire was undertaken, Richardson had told the judge that he was relying on cases which supported his stand.
The judge has so far investigated allegations that factions from the deceased and the accused, comprising relatives, had been taunting each other, amounting to a state of confrontation.
Consequently, before the conclusion of yesterday’s session, and adjournment of the matter to Monday next at 10:00hrs, when she is expected to rule one way or the other, Justice George warned the warring factions to avoid clashes and to live in harmony.
In the case, Eon Williams, called ‘Georgie’, is indicted with the offence of the murder of Kwasi Wilson, called Kwesi, allegedly committed between the 9th and 10th days of April, 2007.
According to Prosecutor Miss Retina Singh, “This is a case (in which) the two young men, who were friends, got into a heated argument, which escalated into a scuffle and a fight at Sandy Babb Street, Kitty.  There, it is alleged, the accused unlawfully stabbed Kwasi Wilson in his abdomen, resulting in his death.
The facts disclosed that, at the beginning of the struggle, each man was armed with a knife. Early in the fight, the accused received a cut on his left palm.
Thereafter, he allegedly threw the knife to the ground, and there was no evidence that he had picked it up.
There was another fight outside the home of the deceased. There, the two men were seen standing facing each other. Later the accused was seen running away, and the deceased was seen entering his yard, holding his abdomen with his intestines protruding.
In a caution statement, the accused said the deceased had attacked him with a knife when he got his hand cut, but he does not know how the deceased got injured.
The defence story was that the deceased met his death by misadventure when he cut his own self during the struggle.
And in cross-examination, Dr. Nehaul Singh, who performed the post-mortem on the deceased, told defence counsel it was possible that the two wounds he had seen on the body of the deceased could have been self-inflicted.
And the doctor agreed with Richardson that the wounds could have been inflicted by the deceased if the deceased was armed with a knife and there was a struggle between himself and the accused. It was possible for him to receive the incised wounds on the shoulder and the abdomen, which caused his death.
From his contention in the substantive trial, defence counsel was contending that the prosecution must first prove that the wound that caused death must have resulted from the act of the accused.