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FIVE men from Claxton Bay who were sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment for the 2005 killing of San Juan businesswoman Samdaye Rampersad have been freed.
On Thursday, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Prakash Moosai, and Mark Mohammed upheld the men’s appeal on their conviction and sentences ordering their freedom after the State did not push for a retrial.
Having already gone on trial three times – in the last they were convicted of manslaughter – the five had faulted Justice Norton Jack's handling of their third trial, which resulted, they said, in a miscarriage of justice and a perverse verdict of manslaughter by the jury.
[caption id="attachment_962794" align="alignnone" width="680"] Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie -[/caption]
The five – Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, Roger Mootoo, Ricky Singh, Kerwin Williams, and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie – were not found guilty of the capital charge of murder, but guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter at the end of their trial in 2017.
Their first trial was in 2009 and the second in 2012. Both resulted in jurors not being able to arrive at unanimous verdicts. Their third began in September 2015 and ended in March 2017.
In their decision, the three judges said given the nature of the errors by the trial judge and the multiple irregularities identified. along with the fact that the fairness of the trial was severely compromised, they had no alternative but to allow the appeal.
[caption id="attachment_962799" align="alignnone" width="662"] Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, Roger Mootoo -[/caption]
On the manslaughter verdicts, they held it was not open to the judge to consider it, given the evidence presented by the prosecution, which pointed to a joint enterprise “to cause nothing less than serious harm to Samdaye.”
“The general feel of this case, as this court experiences it, is one of unease and we, therefore, have a lurking doubt as to whether the convictions are safe and satisfactory.
“There were several weaknesses in the evidence of the prosecution’s main witness…Apart from this, there were a number of errors made by the judge in his directions to the jury in relation to substantial issues...of concern to us.”
On more than 13 grounds of appeal, attorneys for the five men pointed the judges to misdirections and errors they said the judge made throughout the trial, as well as in his directions to the jury.
In their ruling, the three judges agreed with the complaint of adverse publicity caused by the publication of a series of articles during the trial linking one of the men to an abduction that had taken place around that time.
The judges said this had severely compromised the fairness of the trial.
They also faulted the State’s failure to disclose evidence relative to its main witness against the men, saying this position “generated profound disquiet.”
[caption id="attachment_962801" align="alignnone" width="660"] Roger Mootoo -[/caption]
Central to their complaints is the testimony of the State’s main witness, Nigel “Cat” Roderique. They have complained of the prosecution’s decision not to charge him along with the others although he was clearly an accomplice.
Rampersad was kidnapped from her home on November 27, 2005. She was severely beaten and then buried alive in a shallow grave in a cashew field in Claxton Bay.
On January 5, Roderique led police to her body in the hills between Diamond Village and Carolina Village, Claxton Bay. He gave a statement to police in which he implicated all five in either the planning of the kidnapping or her murder. He claimed he was present and privy to the planning and was also there when Rampersad was killed.
[caption id="attachment_962802" align="alignnone" width="586"] Kerwin Williams -[/caption]
The five men were represented by a team of attorneys who included British Queen’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald and Paul Taylor. Also making up the team for the appellants are Rajiv Persad, John Heath, Kelston Pope and Gabriel Hernandez, all of Allum Chambers in Trinidad.
Representing the State at the appeal were special prosecutor Travers Sinanan (now deceased) and deputy DPP Tricia Hudlin-Cooper. Deputy DPP Joan Honore-Paul held for Hudlin-Cooper on Thursday.
 
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