A 39-year-old man has been freed of murdering two men whose decomposing bodies were found in the trunk of a car in Mayaro in 2007.
Randy John was found not guilty of murdering Hilary Wanser and Liam Moore at the end of his virtual judge-alone trial before High Court Judge Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchoo.
In November 2007, Wanser, 63, of Junction Road in Sangre Grande, and 36-year-old Moore, of Woodbrook, were found in a car that was parked near to a beach house where Wanser was the caretaker.
John was initially jointly charged with others for the double murders. The charges against one of his co-accused were discontinued by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) long before he went on trial, while another opted to use a maximum sentence indication and pleaded guilty to felony murder.
During the trial, prosecutors relied on the evidence of Andre Flores and his sister Akeisha.
Flores claimed he played a minor role in the attack on Wanser and Moore and was made a State witness. Flores was murdered in February 2009 and the statement he gave to police before his death was used as evidence in John’s trial.
Flores’ sister was called as a witness to connect John to Moore’s cellphone and SIM card, which were missing when the businessman’s body was found with Wanser’s.
In his closing address, John’s lawyer Wayne Sturge claimed Flores and his sister were not credible witnesses as they made numerous inconsistent statements in the case. He claimed that based on their close relationship both sought to protect each other by downplaying their role in the crime while implicating his client.
He also pointed out that Flores gave contradictory accounts of whether the duo was dead or alive when they were placed in the trunk of the vehicle.
In terms of the alleged link to Moore’s cellphone, Sturge noted that when John and his wife were arrested Moore’s cellphone and SIM card were not found on them.
He claimed that at its highest the telephone records presented by prosecutors showed that Flores sister received a call from Moore’s number after the murder. However, he noted that it did not prove that John had made the call.
He also pointed out that while Flores’ sister claimed John had the cellphone, her brother claimed Wanser and Moore’s three cellphones were shared between the other participants in the murders besides him and John.
John was also represented by Kwasi Bekoe.
