AS THE Plaisance minibus park murder trial continued before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury in the High Court on Friday, the State closed its case against the accused Orin Jerrick after the last witness testified.Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh testified that he conducted the post-mortem on the body of minibus driver Gavin Fiffee on August 4, 2014 at the GPHC mortuary, and that he gave the cause of death as perforation of the lung due to a stab wound.
Dr Singh told the court that the body bore, to the upper right chest, a single wound which was caused by a single-edged blade.
However, under cross-examination by Defence Counsel Peter Hugh, Dr Singh stated that the laceration was caused by blunt trauma on the body of Fiffee, and he concurred with the opinion that a knife or sharp pointed object could have caused the wound, depending on the size.
After the State closed its case on Friday afternoon, Jerrick was asked to lead his defence, and he elected to remain in the prisoner’s dock, where he told the court: “I am innocent of the story given by the police.”
In his closing address, Defence Counsel Nigel Hughes said the accused, Orin Jerrick, had been attacked by a mob, and had been robbed and beaten while he was urinating on the minibus of the deceased at the Plaisance minibus park at Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic.
He said the accused had defended himself, had turned himself over to the police two days after the fatal stabbing of Gavin Fiffee, and had given a statement regarding the matter. Hughes asked the jury to consider that the State had presented three different versions of what they thought had transpired on the day in question, but no one could say how Fiffee had received to his chest the single stab wound which had led to his demise.
NOT SURE
He added that witnesses were not sure of the identity of the ‘man’ who was by the minibus with Fiffee, and pointed out the accused for the first time at the Magistrates’ Court, while he was seated in the prisoner’s dock.
The State, in its closing address to the court made by Prosecutor Narissa Leander, had said that the State has proved its case against the accused through its witnesses; and that the accused had placed himself at the crime scene, having turned himself over to the police and submitted a statement.
She added that the accused was the aggressor in the incident, and he had not been severely injured, as was suggested by the defence, since the deceased had merely broad-sided him with a cutlass after he had first attacked the minibus driver.
Leander said the State had produced witnesses who gave evidence in the court, and the State’s case was not based on speculation, as indicated by the defence. She urged the jury to deliver a guilty verdict, since the accused had inflicted on the deceased the injury which had caused his death.
According to reports, Fiffee, a father of two, was loading his minibus at the Plaisance bus park, on Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic, when Jerrick began urinating on the wheel of the vehicle. Fiffee confronted Jerrick and an argument ensued. Jerrick reportedly stabbed Fiffee to the upper right chest. Fiffee was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) by a public-spirited citizen, where he later succumbed.
Following investigations into the incident, the accused, who had been evading capture for a few days, turned himself over to the police on August 2.
The State is being represented by Narissa Leander, Siand Dhurjon and Michael Shahoud, while defence counsels are Nigel Hughes and Peter Hugh, in association with Savannah Barnwell.
Justice Singh will sum the evidence to the jury up on Monday at 09:00 hrs.
