Derek Achong
Two men, accused of murdering six-year-old Sean Luke over 15 years ago, are expected to learn their fate on July 23.
High Court Judge Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds set the date for the verdict in Richard Chatoo and Akeel Mitchell’s judge-alone trial after Chatoo completed his defence during a virtual hearing yesterday.
Ramsumair-Hinds is expected to hear submissions from prosecutors and the duo’s defence attorneys on the legal issues in the case on Friday before listening to their closing addresses on how to consider the evidence, next week.
She will then take two weeks to determine the duo’s innocence or guilt.
During yesterday’s hearing, Chatoo maintained that he was coerced by the lead investigator, retired Sgt Alexis Garcia, into implicating himself and Mitchell in a statement that was video recorded and given in the presence of his mother and a Justice of the Peace.
While being cross-examined by prosecutor Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal, Chatoo denied that he was able to take police to the exact location in the abandoned sugarcane field near to Luke’s home, where his decomposing body was found.
“It is because you would never forget what happened there,” Dougdeen-Jaglal said.
“No, nothing never happened there,” Chatoo said.
Chatoo also denied that he was willing to give a blood sample for DNA testing because based on his statement he merely held Luke down while Mitchell allegedly raped and sodomized him with a sugarcane stalk.
“I never had sex with Sean and nobody had sex with him in my presence,” Chatoo said.
Chatoo also maintained that Luke and Mitchell did not join him, his nephews and two neighbours on a fishing expedition at a river, which borders the sugarcane field, as claimed by the neighbours, who testified as State witnesses.
“Akeel and Sean were not with us,” Chatoo said repeatedly, as he denied his previous statement, in which he claimed that he, Luke and Mitchell diverted into the field while on their way to the river.
He denied that Mitchell had threatened him after he refused to have sex with him and that he had agreed to introduce him (Mitchell) to Luke before the fishing trip.
Chatoo was also accused of inviting his nephews, who were around Luke’s age, to help convince Luke to come along.
“I wanted to have a little uncle time with my nephews and to give them a little experience,” he said.
He also maintained that his neighbour, Avinash Baboolal, who invited him on the fishing trip, did not like Mitchell because of his race and had suggested attacking him or setting him up after he moved in with Chatoo’s family.
He claimed that Mitchell did not go on the fishing trip as Baboolal had told him to leave him (Mitchell) at home.
Luke went missing on the evening of March 26, 2006 and his body was found two days later in an abandoned sugarcane field next to his community.
An autopsy revealed that he died from internal injuries and bleeding arising out of being sodomized with cane stalk.
Chatoo, who was 16-years-old at the time, and 13-year-old Mitchell were charged with the crime. Mitchell was the stepson of Chatoo’s older brother.
During the trial the State presented the evidence of two other teenagers in the community, Baboolal and Arvis Pradeep, who claimed they saw Chatoo, Mitchell and Luke go into the field.
However, both Baboolal and Pradeep admitted that they initially lied to police over what transpired as they believed that they would be falsely charged with Luke’s murder.
DNA evidence was presented linking Mitchell to the sugarcane stalk used to sodomize Luke and semen that was found on his underwear. A second foreign DNA profile was found on the underwear but Chatoo was not linked to it.
Mitchell is being represented by Mario Merritt, Randall Raphael and Kirby Joseph, while Evans Welch, Kelston Pope and Gabriel Hernandez are representing Chatoo.
Anju Bhola and Sophia Sandy-Smith are also prosecuting.
