Forty minutes.
This was the time it took a 12-member jury before Justice Carla Brown-Antoine to consider four months of evidence and return with not guilty verdicts for six police officers accused of murdering three friends from Moruga in 2011.
Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, Antonio Ramadin, who spent over 12 years on remand before eventually going on trial in July, each broke down in tears as the jury delivered individual unanimous verdicts for them.
A large group of their relatives, who attended every single hearing of the case at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, were forced to contain their emotions, as Justice Brown-Antoine had previously warned that they would be ejected from the courtroom for disturbing the process. Instead, they wept silently as they held each other’s hands in solidarity.
A group of relatives of victims Abigail Johnson, Alana Duncan and Keron Eccles were clearly disappointed by the outcome, as they were seen quickly making their way to the courtroom’s exit even before the jury foreman finished delivering the individual verdicts.
While the trio’s relatives refused to be interviewed, a woman, who identified herself as Eccles’ mother, shared her brief views on the jury’s decision.
“They killed my son. God don’t sleep,” she said.
“Ask the jury how much they get paid,” she added, as she walked away.
Sahadeo, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues after they were allowed to be reunited with their relatives, thanked God for the outcome.
“It was a trying time. Twelve years or 4,409 days away from our families,” Sahadeo said.
Sergeant Khemraj Sahadeo, centre, who was freed of murder in the Moruga Trial, chats with his attorneys Ulric Skerritt, left and Israel Khan SC, outside of the Hall of Justice, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
NICOLE DRAYTON
He said he and his colleagues hoped the case would demonstrate the need for expedited trials for police officers accused of crimes.
“I really hope better decisions are made so this would not happen in the future to police officers whilst on duty,” he said.
Asked whether he and his colleagues were eager to return to active duty, Sahadeo said not immediately.
“The pieces that have fallen are plenty and to pick them up will take some time,” he said.
Senior Counsel Israel Khan, who led the officers’ legal team, echoed Sahadeo’s concerns over the length of time the case took to go to trial.
Describing the delay as unfortunate, Khan said, “I call on the authorities, when police officers are performing their duties and are charged for criminal offences, especially murder, systems should be put in place for it to be expedited.”
Khan also suggested that the case demonstrated why jury trials should not be fully replaced by judge-alone trials.
“It is a great day for them and an even greater day for trial by jury,” Khan said.
He also took issue with the strength of the State’s case against his clients, which he had questioned since the trial commenced.
“I was disturbed by this case because they were incarcerated by the claims of two main witnesses—one a blatant liar and the other a psychopath,” Khan said.
The officers applied for bail pending the trial based on a landmark Court of Appeal decision on the ability of judges to consider bail for people charged with murder. However, their applications were denied by a High Court Judge and the Court of Appeal.
The officers were accused of murdering the trio at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore on July 22, 2011.
The officers claimed that the trio shot at them and they returned fire in self defence. The officers also claimed they found a gun in the car and crime scene investigators found three spent shells inside it.
During the trial, lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC, contended that the officers were targeting Duncan’s common-law husband Shumba James.
James was liming at a bar with the trio and other friends when they left in two cars to purchase food.
James went with two friends in one car, while the trio followed in a Nissan B15 he was known to have used.
Hostile witness
One of the State’s main witnesses in the case was WPC Nicole Clement, who was initially charged alongside her former colleagues from the San Fernando Robbery Squad, before entering into a plea agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
However, Clement refused to testify in the trial due to alleged “safety and security concerns”. She was deemed a hostile witness and her testimony during the preliminary inquiry of the case was read to the jury.
Clement initially claimed that Eccles and Duncan survived the volley of gunshots and Johnson died on the scene. She claimed that she and three of her colleagues took Eccles and Duncan to a remote road off the M2 Ring Road in Woodland, where they were shot again. Spent shells and a used glove was found at the location, after Clement gave the statement to investigators.
Attorney Ulric Skerritt, left, with PC Antonio Ramadin, second from left, PC Safraz Juman, PC Roger Nicholas, Sergeant Khemraj Sahadeo and PC Renaldo Reviero, after they were freed at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
NICOLE DRAYTON
The officers arrived at Princes Town Health Facility with the injured trio almost an hour and a half after the initial shooting.
Clement also sought to detail the steps that she and her colleagues allegedly took to attempt to cover up the crime, including rehearsing their version of the events and writing consistent statements.
During the trial, the jury also heard that months before she was due to testify, Clement sent a letter to DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, indicating her reluctance to testify.
She also provided a statement in which she gave an alternative version of the events and claimed that she had threatened her colleagues in order for them to execute Eccles and Duncan after the initial shooting.
Prosecutors also presented the evidence of Leeladeo Surujbally, who was purchasing food at a roadside restaurant and claimed to have witnessed the shooting.
Describing Surujbally as a blatant liar during his closing address, Khan claimed that his claims over what transpired was contradicted by CCTV footage of the incident, which was captured by cameras at a nearby auto parts dealer.
Khan pointed out that while Surujbally claimed that he heard one of the officers shout “Shumba (Duncan’s common-law husband Shumba James) you dead tonight” before they opened fire on the car the trio was driving in, the footage, which had clear audio, did not reflect such.
After the footage was replayed for the jury, Khan also noted that a single gunshot followed by one continuous volley of gunshots was heard despite Surujbally claiming that there was a pause in the shooting before it resumed, after he saw a woman emerge from the vehicle.
Victims’ families seeking compensation
The victims’ families have also filed wrongful death cases seeking $2 million in compensation for each. When that case went to trial before Justice Kevin Ramcharan in 2018, the State offered no evidence to challenge it.
However, Justice Ramcharan recused himself before determining the case based on the fact that the relatives’ lawyer Keith Scotland, was a member of the legal team representing him (Ramcharan) in a case for drunk driving.
The case has since been reassigned.
The officers were also represented by Ulric Skerritt and Arissa Maharaj.
Elaine Greene, Giselle Ferguson-Heller and Katiesha Ambrose-Persadsingh appeared alongside Peterson for the State.
