Former national cyclist, Tyrone Hamilton who was named in court documents submitted by Roger Khan’s lawyers as saying that he knew who killed Davendra Persaud, yesterday said the attorney misrepresented his views.
He insisted that he was unaware of who Persaud’s killer was, although acknowledging giving the alias of a suspect to Khan’s lawyer, Robert Simels who had contacted him a month ago.
Lawyers representing the Guyanese drug accused on Thursday opposed a US government motion to admit into evidence “uncharged conduct in Guyana, including two murders” which they said Khan has denied committing and they alleged that one of the two could have been killed because he was supplying guns to an anti-government gang in Agricola. Disclosures in the US court in New York about Khan’s alleged involvement in mass killings here have riveted the attention of Guyanese and resulted in the local police force on Wednesday formally asking the US government for any information on murders that Khan might have been involved in.
The prosecution had filed a motion in limine seeking to have the court admit into evidence in Khan’s trial slated for October, that Khan murdered or caused to have murdered Persaud and Donald Allison in October 2004 and September 2005, respectively, as well as some 200 other people in Guyana.
However, Simels and his associate, Diarmuid White, in a 22-page document filed on Thursday argued that introduction of such evidence, based principally on the word of cooperating witnesses with no firsthand knowledge of the murders, would unfairly prejudice Khan and would fundamentally change the tenor and expand the scope of the trial.
The defence lawyers further stated that in the case of Persaud’s murder, they had interviewed cyclist Tyrone Hamilton a witness who was with Persaud at the time he was killed. According to the defence, Hamilton provided them with the name of the person who shot Persaud — a person with whom the witness was familiar — and the witness stated that it was neither Khan nor anyone associated with Khan.
But Hamilton in an interview with this newspaper yesterday denied ever telling the defence with any certainty the name of the person who killed Persaud, although acknowledging that he did provide the alias of a man whose name he said was mentioned frequently soon after Persaud’s killing in Palm Court. “I did not provide any name to Simels. I told him what was being said on the streets and that should not be interpreted as me confirming anything,” Hamilton who said he had now become fearful for his life commented. He added that he was also very perturbed that the lawyer mentioned that he was familiar with Persaud’s killer stating that he never knew the man nor with whom he was associated.
The defence lawyers said in their motion that they had investigated and found out that after Persaud returned to Guyana from the United States he had shot an individual and that individual or persons associated with him would have had strong motives to shoot Persaud in retaliation. In addition, they said, in 1999, “one Butch Fraites (a pilot) was killed in Guyana, and Persaud was arrested for the murder”. The charges were dismissed, and Persaud moved to the United States. When Persaud returned to Guyana in 2003, friends and associates of Fraites had ample motive to kill Persaud, the defence lawyers said.
They also argued with regard to the prosecution’s statement that Persaud’s relative had informed him in a consensually recorded telephone call that `Shortie’ threatened her and her child at gunpoint, Khan denied participating in any such conduct. They said they would provide substantial evidence at trial that the nickname `Shortie’ or `Shortman’ was very common in Guyana.
Nickname
Hamilton told Stabroek News that he first met Simels back in 2006 when the lawyer was here on a visit. He said he was at home when two of Khan’s associates went to his house inviting him to meet Simels at Le Meridien Pegasus. Hamilton said he agreed to attend the meeting in the company of another friend. He said at the meeting Simels asked him a few questions about another person entangled in drug trafficking but he could not provide any information. Hamilton said he did not hear from the lawyer again until about a month ago when he contacted him from the US on Persaud’s issue. Hamilton said during the conversation Simels asked him if Khan was in Palm Court on the night of the shooting of Persaud and he said no.
The lawyer further asked him whether he knew who killed Persaud and he gave him the nickname of a man who had been mentioned after the killing.
Hamilton further told Stabroek News that he repeated the statement he had given to the police following the shooting, saying that he had gone to Palm Court on the night of the shooting when he saw Persaud at a table.
According to Hamilton, he knew Persaud as he was also a cyclist and he sat a little while with him and others at the table and had a glass of coconut water. He said he was about to leave when a man, with a handkerchief tied across his face walked into the bar. He said the man was light-skinned and was wearing earrings. The man opened fire on Persaud, killing him instantly and injuring Hamilton and another man. “That’s all I knew. Afterwards I hear people saying who did the shooting but I don’t know,” he added.
Asked whether Simels had approached him to testify in the trial Hamilton said no, adding that he was not interested in doing so either. He said even if the case requires him to travel to the US to testify he would not go, noting that the entire issue had now made him very fearful for his life.
The prosecution in Khan’s trial had also said that he was responsible for the murder of boxing coach Donald Allison of Agricola. Khan’s lawyers argued that their investigations had revealed that Allison’s murder was because of “his role in supplying firearms to an anti-government gang in the Guyanese town of Agricola that was allied with the anti-government gang in the town of Buxton, which Khan has described in his previous submissions.” The lawyers submitted that Agricola and Buxton were connected by a common sugar cane field, and gang members transporting arms could pass clandestinely from one town to the other. Allison, who operated a gym in Agricola, they said, was discovered to have brought large numbers of arms into Agricola in crates labelled as containing boxing equipment, for distribution to the Buxton gang.
Therefore, the defence lawyers submitted, the prosecution’s contention that the murder of Allison was narcotics-related and that Khan was responsible could only be based on false information provided by a person who was Khan’s political enemy and a supporter of the Buxton criminal gang.
Khan’s lawyers submitted that the US government’s allegations of uncharged murders are based solely on the word of cooperating witnesses and not on any evidence. The prosecution had charged in its motion that Persaud had been killed because Khan suspected that he was cooperating with the US government and that Allison’s murder was because he refused to join Khan’s drug organisation and had insulted Khan in public.
