Prosecutors in the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman trial made up for lost time yesterday with two witnesses testifying in quick succession during the first hearing of the case since the start of the 2014/2015 law term.Retired deputy commissioner of police Mervyn Richardson was the first witness called when the trial resumed before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court, after a month-long break.
Richardson told the 12-member jury and five alternates his main involvement in the case was when he supervised a police exercise at La Puerta Avenue, Diego Martin, on May 9, 2007.The exercise was one of three which took place months after Naipaul-Coolman was abducted in front of her Chaguanas home in December 2006.
Richardson was the senior police officer in the now defunct Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt) which helped the police gather and process crime-scene evidence found during the raids.Richardson explained that while supervising the raid he instructed his officers to arrest one of the 12 accused men, Marlon Trimingham, after he was seen walking near a red-brick house in the area, which police believed was used in Naipaul-Coolman's kidnapping and eventual murder.
Richardson could not reveal anything further about Trimingham's involvement in the case as he said his participation ended when Trimingham was handed over to the lead investigator.While being cross-examined Richardson was quizzed on the role of Sautt in Naipaul-Coolman's investigation, including the processing of multiple crime scenes referred to.
Asked whether Sautt investigators had visited a location in D'Abadie where a $122,000 ransom payment was made hours after her abduction, Richardson said he could not recall.However, he said, if it was done, he would have been provided with a report on it.Richardson was also questioned on a pooltable found in the red-brick house, on which prosecutors claimed Naipaul-Coolman was killed and dismembered after being held captive for over a week.
"We want to know where is the pooltable. We want to see it and examine it," defence attorney Joseph Pantor said."As you know Sautt has been disbanded and all evidence has been handed over to the Police Service so it should be somewhere," Richardson said as he promised to ask acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams to investigate the issue.
Richardson was followed by another senior homicide detective, Supt Jayson Forde, who told the court of his interrogation of two of the accused men.Forde said after the first raid in early January 2007, he was asked to question Devon Peters.A transcript of the interview, during which Peters repeatedly denied involvement in Naipaul-Coolman's kidnapping and attempted to provide an alibi, was read in court.
"The only thing I know about the kidnapping is what I read in the newspapers. If I know anything I would have tell allyuh because I don't be in that stupidness," Peters told Forde in the interview.Before Forde could complete his evidence, the hearing was cut short by a legal objection.The trial resumes this morning.