(Trinidad Guardian) Three years after he was charged with beating his two-year-old stepson Etean George Smith to death, Guyanese national Kamaldeo Singh has been committed to stand trial at the Port-of-Spain Assizes. Singh, 23, appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Court on Wednesday. He was represented by attorney Orrin Kerr, while the State was represented by Hema Sundarsingh. Kerr was appointed through the Legal Aid Authority.
Singh, of Freddy Street, Aranguez, San Juan,was before Ayers-Caesar, charged with beating Smith to death between October 19 and 22, 2010, at Freddy Street, Aranguez. He is accused of beating the child with a belt buckle during an argument with the child’s mother Devika Rani Roopwah. Ayers-Caesar ruled that a prima facie case had been made out against Singh, hence the decision to commit him to stand trial for murder.
Smith’s bruised body was discovered by relatives on a bed at an apartment at Freddy Street on October 21, 2010, after paramedics responded to a distress call. A post-mortem revealed the toddler died of a brain haemorrhage, caused by a severe beating with a belt buckle. He had also been hit in the abdomen, which caused internal bleeding in the kidney, and was violently shaken.
At the time of the incident, Roopwah told police she had a “usual argument” with Singh, and had sought refuge at her mother’s home, leaving Etean in Singh’s care.
