Former soldier Jason Percival said after Balram "Balo" Maharaj died in the hands of his abductors, Sgt Leon Nurse came up with the plan to kill four of the co-conspirators. He said at the time, one of them was in jail, two could not be found, while the other was still in the Santa Cruz area. Percival was questioned at length at the trial in June, first by Jonathan Zucker, the US-based attorney for Ricardo De Four.
Percival said having pleaded guilty to hostage-taking resulting in death, he was expecting a reduced sentence. He was also looking forward to other benefits. While in Trinidad, he was in the witness protection programme, but in the US, he was kept in prison.
Q: Did you want to avoid jail?
A: Yes.
Q: And, you were willing to do pretty much anything you could to avoid it? Isn't that correct?
A: What I needed to do, sir.
Q: Did that include lying.
A: No, sir.
Q; You were willing to kill witnesses, weren't you.
A: Kill witnesses?
Q: Didn't you tell Leon Nurse that you wanted to murder Russel Joseph so that he could not be available as a witness against you?
A: Leon Nurse told me he wanted to get rid of Russel Joseph and Zion Clarke.
Q: He was worried that they were going to be witnesses?
A: Yes, sir. He didn't want to be exposed as being attached to Balram.
Q: Didn't you tell him you wanted to kill Anderson Straker because you were concerned he could be a witness against you?
A: No, sir
Q: What about Doreen Alexander? Did you tell him that you wanted to kill her because you were worried she could talk.
A: No sir, I told him what Pierre (Wayne) told me, sir.
Q: Did you warn these people?
A: No, sir.
Q: So you just didn't care if they were murdered?
A: No, sir.
Percival said he met with Nurse and De Four on the morning of April 6.
"Three of us limed for part of the day...I admitted in my statement to Cpl Veronique that we limed the whole day until the evening when we left," he said.
Q: You didn't correct that statement at any time.
A: No, sir.
Q: And that's the truth, isn't it?
A: As I can remember it, sir.
Q: Can you explain to me how my client was there in the morning and then limed with you whole day, when he was on duty at Camp Omega that morning?
A: Sir, soldiers in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment leave their post several times for many different reasons. Sometimes they leave to go one place and end up the other. As long as you have a connection with the guard commander, they allow them to leave as long as they are close together.
Q: Who was the guard commander that day?
A: I don't know. All I know is how soldiers are accustomed to operating in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment. Not all, but some, sir. There are many times when De Four came to look for me when he was supposed to be working, and he was present with me, sir.
Q: Was he on duty at Camp Omega?
A: I don't know, sir. If it was written that he was on duty, it would have been no surprise to me.
Q: How about if he was teaching a class that morning? How about if that was his duty assignment on April 6, to be teaching a class to other soldiers?
A: On the day of the kidnapping, sir? Yes. I have no answer for that.
Q: Because it would mean you are lying. Right?
A: He was at the bar with me. I have no answer if he was supposed to be teaching a class or he was actually teaching a class. He was at the bar with me, sir, on the day of the kidnapping.
Q: When you met with the FBI on March 24, 2009, in Orange Virginia, you said you met at Mellow Moods Bar with Nurse and Straker, here you said De Four was there. Why did you leave it out your statement with the FBI?
A: I did not leave it out. I don't know what happened, I did not leave it out. I have no answer for that.
Percival said De Four was present when surveillance was done on Balram. But it was not in his statement to the Trinidad police on January 23, 2006.
A: Sir, that is supposed to be there. He is not there.
Q: Did you choose to leave him out of friendship?
A: I would have mentioned that, sir. He was there, but it's not there. It is not there in my statement, I don't know why.
Q: Why did you sign the statement as being correct?
A: I'd say it's probably something that I missed, sir. I never noticed over the past four years it was not there. I can't give any explanation, other than I didn't notice it.
Q: You said on your way to the Samaan Tree Bar from the Mellow Moods bar, you stopped on the way to observe Balram. But in your statement to the police and the FBI, you did not say so.
A: I can't say why.
Star witness
Former soldier Jason Percival was the star witness against seven Trinidadians in Washington DC, on trial for taking US citizen Balram 'Balo' Maharaj hostage, and then killing him. They were found guilty on July 31 and will be sentenced on February 12, 2010. The seven–Ricardo De Four, Wayne Pierre, Zion Clarke, Kevon Demerieux, Anderson Straker, Christopher Sealey, and Kevin Nixon–face mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Percival's cross-examination by Jonathan Zucker is contained among 8,000 pages of the official transcript of the court proceedings, which are in the possession of the T&T Guardian.
TOMORROW:
How Leon Nurse failed two lie detector tests.
