Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Phillip Haynes, com­mon law hus­band of mur­dered se­nior Cus­toms clerk, Joanne Gas­pard, was one of two wit­ness­es called to tes­ti­fy yes­ter­day in the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to his wife's killing. Joanne was the el­der sis­ter of Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard. Gas­pard, 36, a moth­er of two, died on No­vem­ber 13, 2008 af­ter she was al­leged­ly thrown off the bal­cony of her three-storey home in San Fer­nan­do. Charged with her mur­der are Vista­bel­la res­i­dents An­tho­ny Sankar, 26, and Mar­cus Gre­sham, 23. The in­quiry is be­ing heard by Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Mark Welling­ton in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates' Court. Haynes spent just un­der half an hour on the wit­ness stand.

Homi­cide crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tor, Cpl Nigel Mar­rain, was the oth­er wit­ness to tes­ti­fy. Welling­ton, who is on one year's va­ca­tion leave, came to court yes­ter­day to pre­side over the mat­ter. At­tor­ney John Heath, who rep­re­sents Gre­sham and at­tor­ney Ja­son Jack­son, who ap­pears for Sankar, were not present in court. Cross-ex­am­i­na­tion was re­served on their be­half. Se­nior Coun­sel Dana See­ta­hal, in­struct­ed by at­tor­ney Chris See­lochan, ap­peared for the State. The mat­ter was ad­journed Sep­tem­ber 16.