(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.
