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ON FRIDAY, a High Court judge will give her verdict in the trial of the two men accused of the murder of six-year-old Sean Luke, in March, 2006.
Her decision will be streamed live to the public from the Judiciary's website, a release said on Thursday.
It begins at 10 am.
On June 28, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds announced July 23 as the date she will deliver her verdict in the trial of Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo.
More than a decade after Luke was killed, the two went on trial. The taking of evidence began in mid-April.
In its release, the Judiciary said the link to the hearing will be provided to the parties in the matter and media provided they abide by the rules for virtual court, not share the meeting link. Those connecting for the first time after the hearing begins will not be guaranteed admission into the hearing. The live stream of the verdict is for the public and other relevant stakeholders who are not central to the case, the release said.
The rules does not provide for recording or the taking of screenshots of the proceedings.
Ramsumair-Hinds is presiding over a judge-only trial and is required to give reasons for her verdict in keeping with the legislation which governs such trials. Luke died from internal chest and abdominal injuries caused by a cane stalk being inserted into his body cavity from the anus. His body was found on March 28, 2006 in a cane field close to his home, two days after he went missing.
Mitchell and Chatoo, who were both teenagers when they were charged with the boy’s murder, deny the charges.
In early July, Ramsumair-Hinds heard closing addresses from the defence and the prosecution.
The men’s trial began on April 19, and was held mainly virtually with some sessions being held at the San Fernando High Court. Most of the witnesses testified virtually, including Chatoo who testified in his defence.
Chatoo repeatedly denied playing any role in Luke’s murder.
“I never played no role (sic) in his death. I never had sex with him and nobody had sex with him in my presence,” he said in testimony.
He has alleged the statements in which he implicated himself and Mitchell were fabricated by the police and adduced as a result of oppression, trickery, force and inducement. In both his evidence in chief and in cross-examination, Chatoo said he concocted a story based on what the police told him to say.
Mitchell stayed silent at the trial and has only called one witness – pathologist Dr Hubert Daisley, who agreed with the findings of the State’s forensic pathologist Dr Easlyn McDonald-Burris on cause and time of death. McDonald-Burris’s official conclusion on the cause of death was “internal chest and abdominal injuries and hemorrhage due to a foreign object – a cane stalk – introduced into the body cavity.”
Mitchell’s defence is alibi, claiming he was at Chatoo’s home at the time it is alleged they killed Luke. The defence has maintained the State’s case was purely circumstantial and does not support the contention they killed him.
DNA evidence also forms part of the State’s case which is also hinged on the testimony of two witnesses who put both boys with Luke before he was discovered missing.
Mitchell’s DNA profile was found on Luke’s underwear, but none of Chatoo’s was found on either Luke’s clothing or the piece of cane stalk which was inserted into his body from the anus and which ruptured his internal organs, causing his death.
Both Mitchell and Chatoo were teenagers when they were charged. Chatoo, now 31, was 16-years-old when he was arrested and charged. Mitchell was weeks shy of age 14.
On the day Luke went missing – March 26, 2006 – Chatoo said an older neighbour, Avinash Baboolal, asked him if he wanted to go fishing with him and another boy from the area, Arvis Pradeep.
Both Baboolal and Pradeep have testified for the prosecution, claiming Chatoo and Mitchell took Luke into the cane field. Neither saw Luke return from the cane field.
Mitchell and Chatoo are represented by attorneys Mario Merritt, Evans Welch, Kirby Joseph, Randall Raphael, Kelston Pope, and Gabriel Hernandez.
Prosecuting the two are assistant DPP Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal and state attorneys Anju Bhola, and Sophia Sandy-Smith.
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