Shakir Mohamed, on trial for the murder of Shewraney Doobay, yesterday testified that he repeatedly denied killing the woman during police interrogations but eventually signed a confession after being tortured by lawmen.
Mohamed is on trial before Justice Brassington Reynolds and a 12-member jury for allegedly murdering Doobay, called “Monica,” in the course or furtherance of a robbery on May 24, 2011.
Doobay, 58, was found dead in her Echilibar Villas, Campbellville home. A post-mortem examination revealed that she died as a result of eight wounds inflicted to her head.
Mohamed has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He had been jointly charged with Doobay’s nephew, Mark Singh, but his co-accused died in hospital on January 4, 2012.
The prosecution closed its case yesterday after calling its final witness and Mohamed was then called upon to lead a defence.
Mohamed, 32, made an over two-hour-long sworn statement to the court, during which he recounted the events that led him to sign a caution statement.
He recalled his arrest on the night of May 31, 2011. He said he was handcuffed, while his apartment was ransacked by the lawmen. He said he asked one of the officers, whose name he gave as “Mr. Wright,” whether he had a search warrant, but the man responded by saying, “I, Mr. Wright, is the warrant.”
The court then heard from the accused that the lawmen escorted him to one of three police vehicles parked outside of his home. It was at this point that he saw Singh sitting in one of the vehicles.
He said he was taken to the Brickdam Police Station.
Responding to a question from his attorney, Jainarine Singh, Mohamed said that he knew his former co-accused, who was a dispatcher at the taxi service at which he worked up to the time of his arrest. When asked who owned the car he drove as a taxi, the accused told his attorney that the vehicle was owned by his reputed wife.
Mohamed said that at the station, Mr. Wright along with two other officers, whose names he gave as Lowe and Persaud, then told him to sign a document to claim ownership of the car. He said after initially refusing, he acceded to their demand because of the threats they made to him.
He said the lawmen told him that if he did not sign the document, they would have taken his reputed wife and daughter to the station.
The court then heard from Mohamed that Wright put the murder allegation to him and he again denied. He said that after the lawmen made calls to several stations, he was then taken to the Providence Police Station, since the lock-ups there had accommodation.
He said on his way to Providence, he repeatedly asked the officers for something to eat and drink but was given neither. He said he was instead “roughed-up” by a junior rank, who held him by the collar and shook him, while ordering him not to say another word until told to do so.
According to Mohamed, after being placed in the lock-ups at Providence, he heard one of the officers telling another rank to check on him and ensure that a bucket of water is thrown in his cell to prevent him from sleeping.
The accused said that as a result he was hindered from sleeping and suffered swellings to his face because of the cold concrete. He said whenever he fell into a doze, he was drenched with water about eight times.
Mohamed said when he left Providence the following day to head back to Brickdam, he again asked the police for something to eat and was denied. He said his reputed wife had just then arrived at Providence to see him but she was denied access as he was forced into a police van to be taken away.
He said that on his arrival back at the Brickdam Police Station, Assistant Superintendent of Police Joel David put the allegation to him that he murdered Doobay and he again denied. According to the accused, David approached him with two pieces of paper on which he told him to sign at the bottom.
According to him, David told him, “We know that you are not the one who killed Mrs. Doobay, but by signing this paper, we will use you as a witness and you will go free.”
Mohamed said that he also asked the Assistant Superintendent for something to eat but was told “When you finish, yuh gon get everything.”
The man said he refused to sign the papers David had presented to him, as he hadn’t the opportunity to read them and neither were they read to him.
The accused said he, however, later signed the document after being beaten by the police, who placed a black bag over his head. He said that from the scent emanating from the bag, “I knew it was some poisonous substance.”
He said that he began panting for breath during the three to four minutes that the bag was over his head.
He said afterward, David asked him whether he was ready to sign the document, which he did out of “fear, hunger, anger, frustration and humiliation.”
On Wednesday, David testified that Mohamed had told investigators that Doobay was killed by her now dead nephew, Singh.
David had read Mohamed’s caution statement, which was tendered and admitted into evidence. David said that he had cautioned the accused before writing his statement, which he said was given freely and voluntarily.
According to the statement, Mohamed said that it was Singh who beat his aunt with a hammer and later threw the murder weapon into a gutter.
When asked by his attorney, the accused said that while he was taken to a location where police retrieved a black plastic bag, he never pointed to any spot from where the lawmen retrieved a hammer. He said that at the location, at the junction of Stone and Fourth Avenue, he was not taken out of the police vehicle and denied ever pointing to a spot in the drain.
Mohamed said that he saw three ranks reach into a gutter and lift a bag from which water dripped.
He said he could not see what was in the bag when it was opened nor did he know what it contained.
He said that it was during the preliminary inquiry that he learnt a hammer was in the plastic bag.
When asked by his attorney, Mohamed said that prior to May 24, 2011, he did not know Doobay.
On April 9, police witness Morgan Chalmers, who was attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Brickdam Police Station in 2011, recalled that investigators had found a black plastic bag containing the claw hammer in a gutter in the vicinity of the deceased’s home.
He had testified that Mohamed, who was present at the search, pointed to a spot in the drain, after which a police officer went in.
After about five minutes of searching, the officer retrieved the black plastic bag that contained the hammer.
Chalmers had said that after cautioning Mohamed, in accordance with the judge’s rules, the man replied, “This is the hammer.” The witness had also testified that Singh was also present when the hammer was found.
Chalmers told the court that after the bag was found, he asked both men if that was the bag and they nodded their heads up and down, “to mean yes.”
The trial continues this morning at 9 when state counsel Mercedes Thompson will cross-examine the accused.
Mohamed is represented by attorneys Jainarine Singh and Moti Singh.
