Trayon Moore, the man who police say helped Randy Morris rob a Bourda Market vendor in the moments before he was shot dead, was yesterday arraigned on an attempted armed robbery charge at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
A battered-looking Moore, 25, of 11-11 D’Urban Street, Wortmanville, appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, who remanded him to prison but ordered an investigation into allegations that he was beaten several times during his extended stay in police custody.
Moore, whose face was swollen and bruised, was not required to plead to the indictable charge of attempting to commit armed robbery.
It was alleged that on June 23, he attempted to rob Mandaray Sookah, although Moore’s lawyer told the court that he was innocent and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to prosecutor Philip Sheriff, at about 5 pm on Saturday, Sookah was going to her car when Moore approached and snatched her bag, which contained $400,000. Sheriff said the woman held on to her bag, at which point Moore pulled a gun. He allegedly pointed the gun at Sookah, then gun-butted her and ordered her to be quiet. As a result, Sookah lost the bag but an alarm was later raised about the attack and it led to Moore being apprehended on Church Street by police, the prosecutor said. Sookah was not present in court yesterday.
‘Wrong place’
Moore’s lawyer Peter Hugh told the court that his client had no knowledge of the allegation being levelled against him and he contended that he was “in the wrong place and vehicle and [at] the wrong time.”
Hugh did not deny Morris’s involvement in the robbery and he blamed him for attempting to rob Sookah. He said Moore was cutting his brother’s hair when he received a call from Morris, which later led to him being in the car driven by the deceased. Morris committed the robbery and later fled, he said, while his client remained seated in the vehicle since he was innocent, had nothing to hide and had done nothing wrong.
“My client was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Hugh stressed, while indicating that he did not wish to get into the details of the case until the trial.
In requesting bail, he did, however, point out that although the police claimed that Moore was found with a gun, he was not charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. He said Moore, who was the father of a two-year-old child had no antecedents, posed no risk of flight and had been cooperating with the police.
But the prosecution successfully objected, citing the seriousness and prevalence of the crime and the fact that a weapon was used to commit the crime.
‘Beaten by
the squad’
Moore’s battered appearance prompted an enquiry by the magistrate about the cause of his injuries.
The police said he was taken into custody “looking that way”—a claim the defence later refuted.
Moore and his attorney told the court of police beatings he was subjected to while in custody. Moore alleged that he was beaten by “the squad,” a plain-clothes police officer whom he knew from his neighbourhood and civilians. He said he received severe blows to his face and about his body.
He also claimed that he is an epileptic and that he was denied his needed medication by police. It was only on the occasions when he was visited by his lawyer that he was given his medication, he said.
The court further heard that Moore had been kept in police custody in excess of the 72-hour maximum period that police can hold a suspect without charge. Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry demanded an explanation from the police for his extended detention without charge and police said that Moore was only placed on an identification parade on Tuesday. Voicing her dissatisfaction with the response, the magistrate ordered the prosecution to launch a thorough investigation into the defendant’s extended detention as well as the allegations that he had been beaten while in custody.
The prosecution was also ordered to have statements ready to be served on July 5, when the case will be called again for reports in preparation for the commencement of either a trial or preliminary inquiry (PI), depending on whether Moore is tried summarily or indictably.
Morris, a suspect in numerous armed robberies, was shot dead during an armed confrontation with police after Saturday’s robbery. The police said ranks confronted Morris and he opened fire on the police, who returned fire, fatally shooting him. An unlicensed .32 Taurus pistol with five matching rounds was recovered. Based on the accounts of eyewitnesses, the man sustained as many as 12 shots to his head, neck, back, shoulder and legs.
