Sascha Wil­son

"Fast peo­ple will want to find out what you think," Jus­tice An­tho­ny Car­mona said yes­ter­day as he cau­tioned the ju­ry in the Amy Emi­ly An­na­muntho­do's mur­der tri­al not to speak to any­one about the mat­ter. Car­mona gave the warn­ing to the 12-mem­ber ju­ry and al­ter­nates as he sent them away to con­tin­ue hear­ing le­gal ar­gu­ments from at­tor­neys. He told them to re­turn to San Fer­nan­do First Crim­i­nal Court on Tues­day where Amy's step­fa­ther, Mar­lon King, is on tri­al for the child's mur­der.

State At­tor­ney Mau­re­ceia Joseph, who opened the State's case on Tues­day, told the ju­ry that on May 15, 2006 King se­vere­ly beat the child while her moth­er, Ani­ta An­na­muntho­do, was not at home. Joseph said Amy, 4, sus­tained mul­ti­ple ex­ter­nal and in­ter­nal in­juries, in­clud­ing the rup­tur­ing of the atri­um in her heart. She said King's friend, An­dre An­tho­ny Rocke, who went to the home that day, would tes­ti­fy that, through a hole, he saw that King had Amy strung up by her hair and cuffed her 20 to 30 times. King and Amy's moth­er ar­rived that night at the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment with the dead child in their arms, Joseph said. Joseph's open­ing was fol­lowed by le­gal ar­gu­ments in the ab­sence of the ju­ry.

In dis­miss­ing the ju­ry yes­ter­day, Car­mona in­formed them that the at­tor­neys were in­volved in lengthy ar­gu­ments. He told them to re­turn next Tues­day since he would be sit­ting in To­ba­go to­day. Le­gal ar­gu­ments will con­tin­ue to­mor­row and de­fence at­tor­ney El Farouk Ho­sein had a press­ing mat­ter next Mon­day. He, how­ev­er, warned the ju­ry to be ob­jec­tive and not to speak to any­one about the mat­ter. "Fast peo­ple will try to find out what you think. Keep your thoughts to your­self," the judge said. Ho­sein, along with at­tor­ney Dereck Din­di­al, rep­re­sent King.