Derek Achong

Af­ter al­most two years of in­ter­mit­tent hear­ings, in­ter­rupt­ed by court va­ca­tions, pub­lic hol­i­days and ju­ror ab­sences, pros­e­cu­tors in the Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man mur­der tri­al have closed their case against the 11 men ac­cused of the crime.

Lead pros­e­cu­tor Is­rael Khan, SC, made the an­nounce­ment in the Port-of-Spain High Court yes­ter­day af­ter pre­sid­ing judge Mal­com Holdip gave his rul­ing on a le­gal sub­mis­sion which was raised by de­fence at­tor­neys af­ter the State's last wit­ness – a foren­sic lab­o­ra­to­ry tech­ni­cian – com­plet­ed her ev­i­dence al­most two weeks ago.

Holdip told ju­rors to re­turn to court on De­cem­ber 8 af­ter set­ting a time-ta­ble for de­fence at­tor­neys to file le­gal sub­mis­sions in writ­ing. The High Court pro­ceeds on va­ca­tion on De­cem­ber 16.

De­fence lawyers suc­cess­ful­ly pe­ti­tioned the Le­gal Aid and Ad­vi­so­ry Au­thor­i­ty to re­ceive high­er fees for the du­ra­tion of the tri­al, the lead at­tor­ney re­ceiv­ing $30,000 a month and their in­struct­ing at­tor­ney $15,000.

The nor­mal fee is a max­i­mum of $10,000 and $5,000, re­spec­tive­ly for a mur­der tri­al.

Since the high-pro­file tri­al be­gan in March last year, pros­e­cu­tors have called al­most 75 wit­ness­es who in­clud­ed the for­mer Xtra Foods chief ex­ec­u­tive's rel­a­tives and co-work­ers and dozens of po­lice of­fi­cers who in­ves­ti­gat­ed her kid­nap­ping and even­tu­al mur­der.

Naipaul-Cool­man was ab­duct­ed from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, on De­cem­ber 19, 2006. A $122,000 ran­som was paid by her fam­i­ly but she was not re­leased and her body has nev­er been found.

Pros­e­cu­tors have con­tend­ed that she was held cap­tive at a house at Up­per La Puer­ta, Diego Mar­tin, for sev­er­al days be­fore she was shot dead, dis­mem­bered and her body dis­posed of.

They have pre­sent­ed cir­cum­stan­tial ev­i­dence found at the ac­cused men's homes and at the al­leged mur­der scene in ad­di­tion to an il­le­gal firearm which bal­lis­tic ex­perts linked to a spent shell found at the scene of Naipaul-Cool­man's kid­nap­ping.

The State's case is al­so cen­tered around the tes­ti­mo­ny of its main wit­ness, Keon Gloster, who ini­tial­ly claimed he was present when Naipaul-Cool­man was killed but said he did not par­tic­i­pate.

How­ev­er, tes­ti­fy­ing ear­li­er this year, Gloster re­peat­ed­ly claimed he was co­erced by po­lice in­to im­pli­cat­ing the ac­cused men, most of whom are his rel­a­tives. His sworn state­ments which were cer­ti­fied by a jus­tice of the peace have been ten­dered in­to ev­i­dence.

Who's in court

The dozen men be­fore the ju­ry and Jus­tice Mal­colm Holdip are: Twin broth­ers Sher­von and De­von Pe­ters and their old­er broth­er An­tho­ny Dwayne Gloster, sib­lings Kei­da and Jamille Gar­cia, broth­ers Mar­lon and Earl Trim­ming­ham, Ronald Arm­strong, An­to­nio Charles, Joel Fras­er and Lyn­don James.

A 13th man, Raphael Williams, was charged with the crime but died in prison in 2011 of com­pli­ca­tions from sick­le-cell anaemia. Al­lan "Scan­ny" Mar­tin was al­so on tri­al be­fore he was shot dead by po­lice af­ter es­cap­ing from the Port-of-Spain State Prison in Ju­ly.