Mohamed Chan, the husband of Land Court judge Nicola Pierre, yesterday testified that the violent attack at their home occurred hours before he was scheduled to travel to Miami and the bandits took the money set aside for the trip.
Chan took the stand once again at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, where Warren McKenzie, Nicholas Narine, Daymeion Millington, Premnauth Samaroo and Anthony David are on trial before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul.
The five accused are jointly charged with robbing Justice Pierre and Chan, as well as shooting at a security guard on July 9, 2015. It is alleged that the men robbed Justice Pierre of articles including watches, a tablet, video game consoles and games, a phone, a laptop and a quantity of gold and gemstones, all amounting to a total value of $1 million. It is also alleged that they robbed Chan of five watches, a wedding ring, four Oakley sunglasses, two leather wallets, a Samsung S5 cellphone and US$8,000, all amounting $2,630, 000.
Both Pierre and Chan were injured during the robbery with Pierre having to undergo surgery and Chan lost his right eye.
Continuing his testimony yesterday, Chan told the court that on the morning of the attack, he was scheduled to leave the country at 5:30am for Miami. In his testimony on Tuesday, he said the attack occurred at around 1am.
Chan said his packed suitcases and bag were near to the bed where he collapsed when one of the men beat him for two minutes. In the bag was the US currency, he said. In his testimony on Tuesday,
Chan said the bag had contained US$8000 and yesterday, he explained the reason he had that quantity of money on him was because he was about to leave the country.
After the attack, Chan was taken to the emergency room of the Balwant Singh Hospital in Georgetown where he spent two days.
He had previously testified that he spent two days at the hospital and when he was discharged he went to Miami, where he underwent three surgeries to stop the bleeding in his right eye.
Yesterday, he said, while in Miami, he was contacted by Assistant Superintendent Reid of the Criminal Investigation Department via Skype. Using the Skype video call feature, Chan participated in an identification (ID) parade where he was asked to identify any of the perpetrator/s via the numbers they were holding.
Chan told the court that in the first ID parade there was a group of nine men holding numbers from one to nine in sequential order.
He said he had a good look at the men, when the camera zoomed in and out. He later picked out the individual who was holding “Number 7.” The man was Daymeion Millington, who Chan pointed out in court.
Chan also told the court that he participated in a second ID parade, which had 13 men in the lineup. The same numbering system as in the first ID parade was used. The man said all the men were brown-skinned and had a similar build.
After looking at the men carefully, Chan identified “Number 1” who he identified in the courtroom as Nicholas Narine. “I saw that person in my house that night…” Chan told the court. “He [Narine] was the one that hit my wife the second time, he was the one that tied me up and Millington was the one standing at the closet door,” Chan added.
His testimony ended yesterday.
When given a chance to question those who testified, the five accused told the Magistrate that they had no questions. Once again attorney Adrian Thompson, who had appeared for Narine and Samaroo, was a no-show.
The trial is scheduled to continue today with testimony from security guard Roy Peters, who was shot at during the robbery.
