Derek Achong

The ap­peal of a 33-year-old man who was con­vict­ed of rob­bing and mur­der­ing a taxi dri­ver came up for hear­ing yes­ter­day be­fore three judges in the Court of Ap­peal. David Don­ald, of Broth­ers Road, Rio Claro, was con­vict­ed of the mur­der of Ramesh See­lochan by a 12-mem­ber ju­ry in the San Fer­nan­do High Court on Feb­ru­ary 1, 2007.

The ap­peal is be­ing heard by Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and Jus­tices Al­ice Yorke Soo-Hon and Ra­jen­dra Nar­ine. Af­ter hear­ing sub­mis­sions from Don­ald's at­tor­neys and state rep­re­sen­ta­tive Se­nior Coun­sel Dana See­ta­hal, the judges re­served judg­ment to a date to be de­ter­mined by the court.

Dur­ing the tri­al be­fore Jus­tice Mark Mo­hammed, it was the pros­e­cu­tion's case that on Au­gust 8, 2002, Don­ald and his friend Willis Romeo board­ed See­lochan's taxi in Tabaquite. Af­ter trav­el­ling a short dis­tance, Don­ald al­leged­ly drew a gun and an­nounced a rob­bery. Don­ald then al­leged­ly or­dered that See­lochan dri­ve to Cats Hill For­est, Moru­ga, where the vic­tim was robbed of $260.

See­lochan's Nis­san B12 taxi was found burnt. Days lat­er, his de­com­pos­ing body was dis­cov­ered in the for­est by in­ves­ti­ga­tors. Don­ald was ar­rest­ed a week af­ter See­lochan's mur­der. He was held at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port. A pass­port and an air­line tick­et to Grena­da were al­leged­ly found in his pos­ses­sion. Romeo was the State's main wit­ness against Don­ald.

Don­ald was barred from at­tend­ing a part of the tri­al af­ter he threw peanuts at ju­rors and ac­cused them of be­ing prej­u­di­cial to him. In his sub­mis­sion's yes­ter­day, Don­ald's at­tor­ney Evans Welch said ev­i­dence of the air­line tick­et which was pre­sent­ed in the tri­al should be la­belled as in­ad­mis­si­ble, as the doc­u­ment was not pro­duced in court. Welch al­so claimed that his client was de­nied his fun­da­men­tal rights when he was barred from the tri­al for a short pe­ri­od.