THE state yesterday closed its case against murder accused Orvin Kevin Roberts after nine of 11 witnesses testified in the High Court because two witnesses could not be located by the police.

Roberts is on trial for the murder of Harold Rachpaul before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury at the High Court in Georgetown.It is alleged that Roberts between August 18-19, 2011, murdered 84-year-old Rachpaul in the course or furtherance of a burglary at his lot 74 Robb Street home which housed his drugstore.

He has denied the charge.

However, police witness Lance Corporal Desmond Johnny yesterday testified that he had dusted only one of two safes for fingerprints and lifted five finger prints from the inner drawers of a safe that was opened in the drugstore.

Johnny said he did not dust the other safe which was located in Rachpaul’s bedroom next to where his lifeless body was found.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Nigel Hughes, Johnny said he photographed the crime scene but did not dust the padlocks or keys for prints.

Quizzed further, he stated that he could not recall taking prints from Leonard and Vincent Rachpaul, as he detailed the crime scene process of taking photos and fingerprints.

Second police witness Deputy Superintendent Rafeek Ali, a veteran police fingerprint analyst under cross examination said he matched the left index finger print of the accused against the ones found at the crime scene on February 26, 2014.

He however went into a lengthy testimony of the process he underwent analysing the fingerprints of the accused and the prints lifted from the crime scene.

After State Prosecutor Narissa Leander closed its case against Roberts, he told Justice Singh that he would remain in the prisoner’s dock where he gave a statement of his arrest by the police proclaiming his innocence.

Roberts told the court that on February 26, 2014, he was at the mechanic overseeing repairs to a minibus belonging to his mother when a party of policemen came to him at the Sophia tarmac area.

He said at the time he was lying on the ground and he raised his hands up and an officer told him that an allegation had been made against him and he would be taken to the Turkeyen Police Station.

At the time Roberts said he was a minibus conductor on the said bus and had in his possession $100,000 in cash which was given to him by his aunt to purchase spare parts to repair the bus and the keys for the said bus.

Roberts said the police searched him before he was taken to the station and was asked where he got the money from and before he could answer, the office told him that “the money is theifing money.”

He added that some other men who were at the wash bay were called out and also taken to the police station and booked while he was told that he would be passing through court.

Roberts said he was taken to the Criminal Investigations Department, Eve Leary, where he was questioned and fingerprinted twice.

He told investigators that he did not commit any murder and was taken to several police stations from February 26 to March 2014 after which he was told on March 3, 2014 that his fingerprints matched those found at the crime scene and to prepare for court.

The accused told the court he is innocent of the crime and at the time of the incident he was away in the interior working because the “bus work” was hard around that time.

Defence counsel Nigel Hughes in his closing address said the accused was arrested based on a description given of a fine-boned Negro man and the location three years after the murder.

When he was locked up his aunt came and claimed the money and there was no way the accused could have accessed the place without encountering the loud and aggressive dogs.

Hughes said although there were two safes in the premises only one was dusted for fingerprints and the padlocks were not dusted.

He added that there were no signs of forced entry to the place, photos of the crime scene are missing and the police had no evidence before the accused had his fingerprints taken when he was arrested.

State Prosecutor Narissa Leander in her closing address to the jury said the case is based on circumstantial evidence and they should look at the evidence tendered in the case.

She stated that the fingerprint of the accused matched those taken from the crime scene and that should be considered as crucial evidence.

The verdict will be delivered today (Thursday) by a 12-member jury after summation by Justice Singh in the High Court.