Did Marlon King murder his four-year-old stepdaughter Amy Annamunthodo in 2006? That is the question defence lawyer El Farouk Hosein yesterday asked the 12-member jury in the San Fernando First Assizes. He told them that was the question they would have to answer. Hosein, in his closing address to the jury before Justice Anthony Carmona, said: "I am not going to ask you who killed this child...you have to answer that."
Hosein, in pointing out what he suggested were inconsistencies in the State's case against King, questioned why Amy's mother, Anita, was not called to testify. He also suggested that no evidence was taken from her. "Why was she never brought here?" he asked.
"What is the State hiding? Are they hiding something?" Hosein, in his near one-and-a-half-hour address, suggested that no medical evidence was presented to show that King killed Amy.
Sperm and blood found on Amy's clothing, Hosein added, did not match King's. He said, however, that the blood matched one of Amy's maternal relatives. He advised the jury to search the statements, medical records and evidence "and see if you could find that this accused caused the death of this child. "We have nothing to hide in this matter," the lawyer said.
King, 39, is charged with murdering Amy on May 15, 2006, in the Marabella home he shared with Anita and Amy. The child was beaten to death. Hosein said the State's calling of King's ex-wife and mother of his two children, Lou-Ann Davis, was an "intention to smear the accused." King admitted that he used to beat Davis naked during their 15-year marriage. "Which husband and wife do not have misunderstandings?" Hosein said.
"Some separate after six months, a year...She stayed with him for 15 years and they had two children." The State's case is being led by prosecutor Mauriciea Joseph. She will address the jury this morning at 9.30. King's neighbour, Andre Anthony Rocke, was the State's main witness. He testified that he looked through a hole of the King's front door and saw him punching Amy 20 to 30 times while she was strung up by her hair from an overhead rafter at his Marabella home.
King, however, denied that he beat or touched the child. Hosein said no evidence was shown that the child received injuries to the top of the scalp if she was hung by her hair. Hosein also reminded the jury that Rocke was unable to point out the area, where the hole he allegedly peeped through was, when he was shown the State's photographs. He suggested that Rocke "had an interest to serve" as he was also in the house with Amy on the day of her death.
The lawyer added that fresh scratches were found on the child. Scrapings from under King's fingernails were taken as well as penile tests. None, however, was taken from Rocke, he added. "Is it a lack of proper investigation from the police?" he asked.
