JUSTICE Franklyn Holder, presiding in the murder trial of Odingo Greene, called ‘Dingo’, did not rule on defence no-case submissions, as was stated in the Chronicle yesterday.

Because leading prosecutor Mrs. Judith Mursalin, who is associated with Attorney Miss Diana Kaulesar, devoted the entire session yesterday replying to defence counsel Nigel Hughes’s no-case submissions, the judge will now make his ruling on Monday.
At the voir dire held in the absence of the jury yesterday, the prosecutor cited a number of cases in  support of her contention that the case of the accused, who is charged with the murder of Nazaleene Mohamed, should be sent to the jury in the interest of justice. Some of the very cases had been cited by Mr. Hughes to support his claim that the prosecution had not made out a prima facie case for his client to answer.
Mr. Hughes, who is one of the lawyers that will be attending the Linden Inquiry on Monday, sought an application for a late start of the murder trial, so that he would be able to spend some time at that inquiry.
The application was granted.
Odinga Greene is indicted for the murder of Nazaleene Mohamed, allegedly committed between February 2nd and 12th, 2007. Her mother had identified as her daughter the decomposing body of a female which was found in a shallow grave in a coal pit at Wisrock, Linden. Nazaleene’s identification was based on a tattoo around the navel.
In the event that the judge agrees with the no-case submissions by the defence, the accused will be freed at this stage. But if the judge rules in favour of the prosecution, the accused will be called upon to lead a defence and the trial will continue.
In her opening address to the jury at start of the murder trial, State Prosecutor Miss Diana Kaulesar had explained that murder is the unlawful intentional killing of one human being by another. And she had emphasized that the human being killed in this case was Nazaleene Mohamed.
She had said that Odinga Greene is alleged to have killed Mohamed sometime between the 2nd and 12th of February, 2007.
According to the prosecutor, after the prosecution has called all of its witnesses, the prosecution will close its case, and the accused may or may not then lead a defence.
“As I said before, the prosecution has the burden of proving the accused’s guilt in this matter. The accused does not have to prove his innocence. That is a long-established principle of our legal system.”
She had also told the jury that, “should the accused choose to lead a defence, however, then after the defence closes its case, His Honour, the learned trial judge, will then sum up all of the evidence to you, the jury, and then you will retire to consider a verdict.”
The story related by the prosecution was that on the evening of February 2, 2007, the accused, Odinga Greene, went to the home of the deceased, Nazaleene Mohamed, with a car, and picked her up along with her friend.
When Nazaleene left her home, she was wearing a large quantity of jewellery.
She had allegedly told her mother in the presence of the accused that Odinga called her and had told her to put on all her jewels,   because she had to look nice where she was going.
The three of them were going to Cayenne. The deceased’s mother never heard from her daughter again.
The decomposing body of a female was found at Wisrock, partially buried in a shallow grave. That body was never identified.
The doctor who performed the post-mortem told of carrying out an examination on a decomposed unidentified body of a female, whom he said might have died of asphyxiation as a result of ‘ligature’ strangulation.
The accused has pleaded innocent to the charge of murder. The hearing continues on Monday.