THE magisterial hearing of the extradition inquest of Troy Anthony Thomas, who is wanted in the United States in connection with a 2011 murder, continued on Thursday with the testimony of Assistant Superintendent of Police, Simeon Reid.

Reid took to the witness stand before Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at the Providence Magistrate’s Court and told the court that at the time of Thomas’ arrest he was the officer in charge of fraud at the Criminal Investigation Department.
The officer stated that based upon the request made by the Government of the United States to the Government of Guyana for the arrest of Thomas, he aided in locating the accused.

He added that he received from the Central Immigration and Passport office, Thomas’ travel itinerary after making a request for the document.
The witness further added that on March 14, about 8:20hrs while on duty at CID’s holding area, where Thomas was being kept, he asked the accused his name and he replied ‘Marvin Williams.’

The witness recounted that he interviewed the accused in his office in the presence of another officer, during which time the accused admitted that his name was Troy Anthony Thomas and not Marvin Williams.

The accused, according to Reid then provided them with his date of birth, parents’ name and place of birth to which an entry of this was made in the station diary and the defendant signed his name as ‘Troy Thomas’. He was then arrested and read his rights.

The witness was then grilled by defence attorney, Nigel Hughes about not having any proper identification for Troy Thomas such as passport to which Reid stated that he had none. The witness also stated that he had no information on passports being issued to Troy Thomas and he made no checks with registries to find out if any documents were issued for Thomas.

The attorney then suggested that the only grounds that the witness could say that Troy Thomas is indeed the true identity of the defendant was that he stated so. The witness did not reject the attorney’s claim. Reid further said that the defendant voluntarily gave his name as Troy Anthony Thomas and signed to same.

The witness was then re-examined by an attorney that is representing the interest of the US Government during which it was revealed that samples from the US government matched Thomas fingerprint. Alsoother persons identifying him as ‘Troy Anthony Thomas’.
The Magistrate explained that she might have to hold a voir dire to determine the identity of the accused since there seemed to be some uncertainty. However, this is yet to be determined.

The matter has been adjourned until July 17.
Thomas, 31, of South Ozone Park, Queens, New York, was nabbed by police during an operation on Wednesday, March 14, which had commenced since January 31, 2018.

According to reports, on December 11, 2011, 20-year-old Keith Frank was shot once in the torso in a flash of violence outside a South Richmond Hill party. Frank, who moved to Queens from Guyana when he was 12, died exactly two months before his 21st birthday.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) began looking for Thomas in connection with the shooting. However, within hours of the shooting, he allegedly fled the jurisdiction and crossed over to Canada from New York State.

In Canada, he is said to have used travel documents belonging to a relative and boarded a Caribbean Airlines flight, arriving in Guyana in the early hours of the morning before the bulletin could reach Interpol (International police).