Sascha Wil­son

In the mid­dle of his tri­al mur­der, ac­cused Mukesh Chan­dra­dath changed his mind about rep­re­sent­ing him­self and has re­quest­ed le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion.Jus­tice Prakash Moo­sai sub­se­quent­ly ap­point­ed at­tor­ney Mewahlal Cha­toor as his ad­vo­cate at­tor­ney and ad­journed the mat­ter to to­day for at­tempts to be made to find an in­struct­ing at­tor­ney.The tri­al, in which he is charged with mur­der­ing pen­sion­ers Sel­wyn Grant and Ur­sil­la In­niss in 1999, be­gan a month ago with Chan­dra­dath rep­re­sent­ing him­self.The judge ap­point­ed at­tor­ney Ramesh Deena as his le­gal ad­vi­sor.

The mur­ders took place be­tween Ju­ly 31, 1999 and Sep­tem­ber 17, 1999 at the cou­ple's Al­leyne Dri­ve, Syne Vil­lage, Pe­nal, home.State at­tor­ney Mau­re­ceia Joseph and the ac­cused had em­barked on a voir dire which was com­plet­ed last week and the state then be­gan call­ing wit­ness­es in the pres­ence of a 12-mem­ber ju­ry.So far four wit­ness­es, in­clud­ing Dr Ed­di­son Fur­longe and ASP Cyril Har­ry, have giv­en ev­i­dence in the San Fer­nan­do First Crim­i­nal Court. Har­ry was the last wit­ness to give ev­i­dence and be cross ex­am­ined by the ac­cused on Wednes­day.

When the mat­ter re­sumed yes­ter­day, the ac­cused said he want­ed le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and the mat­ter was stood down.When it re­sumed the judge told ju­rors he was try­ing to re­solve an is­sue of le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the ac­cused.It said the ac­cused was now avail­ing him­self to le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tions. In­di­cat­ing he had ap­point­ed Cha­toor.The judge said an in­struct­ing at­tor­ney was re­quired in cap­i­tal mat­ter, adding he would give them the rest of the day to get one.He al­so in­di­cat­ed he would be giv­ing the at­tor­neys time to pre­pare their case so the tri­al should re­sume on Mon­day.How­ev­er, he asked them to re­turn on court to­day.