The common-law wife of 25-year-old Joash Ali appeared yesterday in the Mayaro Magistrates Court charged with his murder, five days after he was stabbed to death at their home.When Himlata Samaroo, 27, an administrative assistant and mother of one, appeared before the court, Senior Magistrate Gail Gonzales asked Samaroo her age before reading the charge to her.The charge is that on June 29 she murdered Ali at St Ann's Village, Mayaro, where he was renting an apartment. He was stabbed several times.
Samaroo was arrested and charged by Cpl Racha.Gonzales urged the prosecution to expedite sending the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.Assuring that the file would be sent quickly, court prosecutor Sgt Gadar said the prosecution had 11 witnesses.Samaroo's attorneys, Sophia Chote, SC, and Rosario Sookdeo, walked in at the same time the magistrate was asking Samaroo if she had an attorney.Updating Chote on what had happened, the magistrate told her the court would have to wait until a state counsel was appointed, but she had asked theprosecution to start the process with the witness statements.
Chote asked for a shorter date than the 28-day adjournment because, she said, it would take longer for a state attorney to be appointed if the adjournment were that long.The magistrate said that did not happen in her court because of how she dealt with the matters before her, but since she would not be the presiding magistrate when the matter was recalled she granted the request.The magistrate said she could not understand why it often took six months for the DPP to receive a file.Also asking for the statements to be expedited, she said, "I don't understand why it takes years."The prosecutor said he would speak to Insp George from the Homicide sub-office in Rio Claro, from whom he expected to have some information by the next sitting.The case was adjourned to July 17.