(Trinidad Guardian) Almost a decade after his girlfriend was chopped to death in a hotel room in Tunapuna, a 60-year-old man of San Fernando has admitted to the crime. Ishmael Mohammed Khan, of Rushworth Street, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter during his trial before Justice Mark Mohammed in the Port-of-Spain Second Assizes Court on Thursday.
The plea was accepted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Throughout the trial, which began in early October, Khan maintained he was not at the hotel on the night of the murder of Samdaye Sookwah, 51, of Mahabir Street, Charlieville.
During Thursday’s hearing, Khan had a change of heart after prosecutor Tricia Hudlin-Copper led evidence which showed that Khan had signed the ledger when he rented the room at the hotel in Tunapuna where Sookwah’s body was found on January 18, 2003. Her semi-nude and mutilated body was discovered by hotel worker Sati Seecharan, who also testified in the trial that she saw Khan and the victim enter the hotel the night before her body was found.
Using a certificate of analysis from forensic analyst Kirk De Coteau from the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Hudlin-Copper said there was a high possibility that the writing in the hotel guest book matched Khan’s. Although Khan signed the book using Sookwah’s name, Hudlin-Copper was able to compare the writing sample from the hotel to those found on greeting cards and letters that Khan had sent the victim during their relationship.
The written correspondence, which was the key to proving that Khan was on the scene of the murder, was only made available by Sookwah’s brother when the trial began. According to Hudlin-Copper, Sookwah’s brother told investigator Inspector Ramnaresh Seecharan that he did not feel the documents were important to the investigation as they were personal letters.
When he was arrested in connection with Sookwah’s death in 2009, Khan was quoted as telling police: “I was never in that hotel and I don’t know that woman (Sookwah).” While on trial, he changed his story and admitted to being in a relationship with her for several years. Khan was represented by defence lawyer Ulric Skerritt. He will be sentenced by Mohammed next Thursday.
