At Demerara Assizes…
JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes yesterday ruled, after a voir dire (trial within a trial), that the Prosecution in the murder trial of Compton Fernandes alias ‘Madman’, at the Demerara Assizes, can lead additional evidence.
One of the witnesses called after the ruling, traffic policeman Gavin Boyce said he was on motorcycle duty July 3, 2005, when he observed the bound, lifeless body of Latchman Seeram called ‘Coolie Boy’ in Commerce Street, Georgetown.
Boyce, who admitted, under cross-examination, that it was the first time he was asked to testify although he was the one who summoned the Police to the crime scene,  denied a suggestion, by Defence Counsel Glenn Hanoman, that it was not possible for vehicular traffic to make contact with the corpse.
He did not know why he was not called at the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the charge.
The witness also told State Counsel Savini Balcharan, who was leading him through evidence-in-chief, that he had examined the deceased and found a small hole in his head but no pulse beat.
But, in answer to Hanoman, he said he could not believe that a man would suffer such a hole from a cuff.
The witness said he had seen the dead man not far from where some vendors were but he did not ask them anything, Instead, he reported the sighting to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Brickdam, from where an investigating team was dispatched.
The other witness to give additional testimony, Dhanoam Kadirwell will be called when the trial resumes on Wednesday, March 3.
Earlier, Forensic Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh, who performed a post mortem examination on the victim, said the cause of death was asphyxiation due to broncho aspiration caused by blunt trauma to the head and neck.
Eyewitness Kwesi McKay, a clothes vendor, said he was in Commerce Street on July 3, 2005, when he saw the accused beat Seeram.
McKay said he was in his stall when Seeram and another man were taken to Commerce Street by the accused and someone else.
McKay denied that he was paid, by Mark Rodney and Kerene Jacobs, also vendors and that he had agreed to put the blame on the accused and gave a statement to the Police to protect the others.
He said it was not true that at least five persons beat the victim but he did not know if the latter was beaten elsewhere before he saw the accused beating him in Commerce Street that morning.
Others on the Proseution team are State Counsel Prithima Kissoon, and Judith Gildharie-Mursalin.