By Michel Outridge

WITNESS Kelvin Peazer had a seizure and collapsed in the witness box Wednesday during the second day of the murder trial of teenagers Kevin Washington and Dennecia Halley at the High Court for the murder of seaman Antonio Isles between March 1 and 3, 2013 at Pike Street, Kitty.Testifying before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury at about 14:00hrs, Peazer suddenly came out of the witness box after briefly rubbing his head, causing a section of the jury to vacate the area after he collapsed there.

The witness appeared to be having an epileptic seizure which lasted for several minutes while people in the courtroom, including the police and relatives of both accused, rushed to assist the man by placing a spoon in his mouth.

Sometime afterwards the man regained consciousness and walked out of the courtroom assisted by the police and he was taken to the hospital via an ambulance that was summoned. Then another witness was called and the matter was adjourned until Thursday.

The first witness on Wednesday was Detective Constable Halley Samuels, who told the court that he went to witness the post-mortem examination at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) with the wife of the deceased on March 6, 2013, and uplifted the PM report and lodged it. He said further that he had witnessed Isles’ burial at Le Repentir Cemetery on March 13, 2013.

The second witness Margaret De Florimonte, a resident of Pike Street, Kitty said that on March 1, 2013 at about 20:30hrs she was sitting on her bridge when she observed a crowd and she approached the scene. There she saw a group of children which she numbered to be about eight to ten armed with pieces of wood and they seemed ‘agitated’ and the deceased Antonio Isles, called ‘Montana’, was lying on the ground unresponsive.

De Florimonte said neighbours threw two buckets of water on Isles and she recognised someone resembling the number one accused Kevin Washington as one of the children in the group and the number two accused Dennecia Halley, who was also part of the group.

De Florimonte added that she gave the police a statement on March 6, 2013 and police held a confrontation between her and the two accused at the Kitty Police Station.

During cross examination by defence counsel Peter Hugh for the number one accused Kevin Washington, the witness De Florimonte admitted that Washington resembled one of the brothers of the number two accused Dennecia Halley. She said when questioned, that she did not attend an identification parade, but that she saw the two accused at the Kitty Police Station when she gave a statement.

De Florimonte said she knew the youths because they live in the same street and she knew them as children.

When further questioned by defence counsel Dexter Todd for the number two accused Dennecia Halley, the witness said that she never had a confrontation with the accused at Kitty Police Station but recognised her at the scene.

The third witness, Kevin Peazer in his evidence-in-chief told the court that he and the deceased were friends and they had been consuming Guinness at a shop in Pike Street at about 20:00hrs on March 1, 2013. He said that he was in the shop imbibing, when Isles passed and he called him for a drink at the then “K Mart” shop.

Peazer told the court that Isles asked him to buy high wine for him but the shop did not have that particular liquor so he exited the shop after he was given a cigarette.

He added that it was about 12 minutes after Isles left the shop that he heard a commotion and saw a group of children with pieces of 2×4 wood in their hands beating Isles, who was lying on the ground.

Peazer explained that when he approached the group of children numbering about five to eight, some of them ran away but two of them remained at the scene.

He asked them: “Why yall beating this man?” and one of them said: “Why you don’t mind your own business – this man rob meh mother.”

Peazer then identified both of the accused as the two youths he saw on March 1, 2013 at the scene, adding that they appeared to be in a “rage”.

He told the court that buckets of water was thrown on Isles, who regained consciousness. He was then placed at the shop, after which he (Peazer) took him in a taxi to Kitty Police Station. The witness said he was detained while a taxi took Isles to the hospital.

The fourth witness, Corporal Shellon Edwards said that relative to a report of the murder of Antonio Isles, she contacted Halley on March 6, 2013 and told her of the allegation after which she cautioned her.

In response, Halley told her: “Offica, all meh go tell you meh ain’t murder nobody. I was in the house watching news and heard people making noise, meh ain’t hear anything about no murder.” Halley was then arrested and placed in custody at the Kitty Police Station.

The state prosecutors are Michael Shahoud and Orinthia Schmidt, while the defence counsels are Peter Hugh and Dexter Todd.

Isles, 40, of Lot 248 Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown was allegedly beaten by a group of persons at Pike Street on March 1, 2013. The seaman was admitted to the GPHC and later succumbed to his injuries.

A post-mortem examination performed by Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh gave the cause of death as a fractured skull.