The tri­al of a 29-year-old man ac­cused of the mur­ders of agri­cul­tur­al con­sul­tant John Crop­per, his moth­er-in-law and sis­ter-in-law in 2001 has be­gun in the Port-of-Spain High Court. Daniel Agard, of Up­per Bushe Street, Maitagual, San Juan, is be­fore Jus­tice Prakash Moo­sai in the First Crim­i­nal Court charged with the mur­ders at Crop­per's Mt Anne Dri­ve, Sec­ond Av­enue, Cas­cade, home be­tween De­cem­ber 11 and 12, 2001.

Dur­ing to­day's hear­ing, state pros­e­cu­tors and Agard's de­fence at­tor­ney, Wayne Sturge, are ex­pect­ed to be­gin se­lect­ing a 12-mem­ber ju­ry with five al­ter­nates. Crop­per, 59; his moth­er-in-law Mag­gie Lee, 68; and sis­ter-in-law Lynette Lith­gow-Pear­son, 57, were found dead by po­lice on De­cem­ber 13, 2001. They were bound and gagged and their throats had been slit.

Lith­gow-Pear­son was a for­mer tele­vi­sion broad­cast­er with the British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC). Agard is re­lat­ed to the fam­i­ly, as he is one of Lee's grand­chil­dren. Crop­per's wife An­gela, a for­mer In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor and deputy di­rec­tor of the Unit­ed Na­tions En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­gramme, was not at home at the time of the mur­ders. She died in Lon­don, Eng­land, in No­vem­ber last year af­ter a pro­tract­ed ill­ness.

Agard is al­so be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Ha­sine Sheik while Joy Balka­ran is pros­e­cut­ing the case.