Derek Achong

The Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man mur­der tri­al re­sumed yes­ter­day with a ver­bal bat­tle be­tween lead pros­e­cu­tor Is­rael Khan, SC, and the state's main wit­ness Keon Gloster.

Since Gloster de­cid­ed to re­cant his ev­i­dence at the start of tes­ti­mo­ny last month, Khan has spent a con­sid­er­able amount of time quizzing him on a se­ries of state­ments he al­leged­ly gave po­lice in 2007 which im­pli­cat­ed the 12 ac­cused men on tri­al.

Yes­ter­day was no dif­fer­ent, as Khan again fo­cused on Gloster's claim that he was threat­ened by po­lice and forced to sign the state­ments.

Khan: Did you sign the state­ment?

Gloster: The po­lice force me. I was young and don't know how to read. My un­cle tell me not to sign any­thing.

Khan: Did they put a gun to your head or a pen in your hand?

Gloster: No sir, a pen, but they still force me.

Khan: What the po­lice force you to say?

Gloster: To swear I see them (the ac­cused) with the woman.

Khan: Did you tell po­lice you saw Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man?

Gloster: I don't know Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man. Why are you ask­ing me these ques­tions?

As Khan pressed Gloster fur­ther us­ing spe­cif­ic quotes from the state­ments, Gloster re­fused to an­swer and kept re­peat­ing his al­le­ga­tions. "I would have nev­er said any­thing about them men," Gloster said, as he point­ed to the ac­cused men who were seat­ed in the pris­on­er en­clo­sure of the Port-of-Spain Sec­ond Crim­i­nal Court. Al­though he said he could not re­mem­ber the po­lice of­fi­cers, when Khan in­vit­ed In­sp Suzette Mar­tin, the homi­cide de­tec­tive who record­ed his state­ments, in­to the court, Gloster iden­ti­fied her as one who had threat­ened him.

In the light of Gloster's claims against Mar­tin and her col­leagues, pre­sid­ing Judge Mal­colm Holdip has deemed him a hos­tile wit­ness and has agreed to al­low pros­e­cu­tors to ten­der one of his state­ments in­to ev­i­dence.

The state­ment in which Gloster claimed to be present when Naipaul-Cool­man was killed and dis­mem­bered in a house in Up­per La Puer­ta, Diego Mar­tin, and her body parts buried in a des­o­late area of the hill­side com­mu­ni­ty was read to the 12-mem­ber ju­ry, yes­ter­day. Khan is cur­rent­ly at­tempt­ing to have the rest of Gloster's al­leged state­ments en­tered in­to ev­i­dence.

Naipaul-Cool­man was ab­duct­ed from her Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, home, on De­cem­ber 19, 2006. Pros­e­cu­tors are con­tend­ing that she was held cap­tive in a house shared by three of the ac­cused men be­fore she was even­tu­al­ly killed.

Her body has nev­er been re­cov­ered by po­lice.

Gloster's tes­ti­mo­ny will re­sume this morn­ing.

MORE IN­FO

Who's in court

The 12 men be­fore the ju­ry and Jus­tice Mal­colm Holdip are Al­lan "Scan­ny" Mar­tin, 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 aris­ing from sick­le cell anaemia.

Le­gal team

Their le­gal team in­cludes Ul­ric Sker­ritt, Joseph Pan­tor, Sel­wyn Mo­hammed, Lennox Sankers­ingh, Ian Brooks, Wayne Sturge, Mario Mer­ritt, Richard Valere, Kwe­si Bekoe, Col­in Selvon, Vince Charles, Chris­t­ian Chan­dler, Deli­cia Hel­wig and Alex­ia Romero. The pros­e­cu­tion team in­cludes Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan and Gilbert Pe­ter­son who are be­ing as­sist­ed by se­nior state pros­e­cu­tors Joy Balka­ran and Kel­ly Thomp­son.?