Two of the three friends of Premnauth Samaroo yesterday supported his testimony that he was with them and not the quartet accused of robbing Justice Nicola Pierre and her family on July 9, 2015.
After being summoned by Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul, Christopher Rogers and Brandon Dixon appeared in court yesterday. Rogers and Dixon both testified that Samaroo was with them on the night the robbery occurred at Montrose, East Coast Demerara.
Samaroo, Nicholas Narine, Daymeion Millington, Warren McKenzie, and Anthony David are on trial for allegedly robbing the judge and her husband, Mohammed Chan, of cash and articles amounting to over $3.6 million, as well as shooting at a security guard.
Rogers, who took the stand first, led in his evidence in chief by Attorney Adrian Thompson, said that they were at a friend’s house playing games when Dixon called and asked him to pick him up at his girlfriend’s place at Agriculture Road on the East Coast. He said Samaroo and Kelvin Depeazar, who was also playing the games, accompanied him for the trip. Rogers said that while they were driving up the coast, the car was constantly losing power and stuttering, but he managed to collect Dixon from his girlfriend’s place.
He told the court that it was when they were making their way back to Georgetown the car broke down at Better Hope on the Railway Embankment. Rogers said the car he drove that night belonged to his brother-in-law who was not in the country at the time.
Rogers said that he, Depeazar, Samaroo and Dixon pushed the car from Better Hope to his aunt’s place in Plaisance which is not too far from the Embankment Road. Rogers said it was while they were at his aunt’s place, that they heard sounds like gunshots. “We then walked back to Plaisance line top to wait on a car, there were four taxis on the line but they all refused to take us home, so we walk out back to the front by de police station, thinking it go be better to catch a taxi,” Rogers told the court.
He said that while they were on the public road, an officer came up and arrested them. “He come out and call we into the station, me and Kelvin and then like he went back out and bring in Samaroo and Brandon, that was like around 1 or 2.30 in the morning,” Rogers said.
Rogers also testified that while at the Sparendaam Police Station, plainclothes police assaulted him and asked him if it was he and his friends who had shot up in front of a lady’s home that very night. He said he tried to explain to the police what had happened to them and he denied knowing anything about a shootout.
Under cross-examination by Special Prosecutor Nigel Hughes, Rogers said that when the car broke down, he had called his sister, but he did not call her back when he was arrested. He said that he and the others made several attempts to stop vehicles to ask for a tow but no one rendered assistance to them. When the car broke down at Better Hope, he said, he made other calls, one call to his mechanic and the other to a cousin-in-law; they were both unable to help.
Rogers said that was the first time he had driven to Agriculture Road on the East Coast. He maintained that he could not recall any landmarks or the directions to where he had picked up Dixon that night since it happened about ten months ago.
Hughes suggested to Rogers that his testimony was fabricated, since he could not remember or recall directions to a village where he was allegedly called to pick up Dixon. Rogers maintained that his testimony was not fabricated.
Meanwhile, Dixon attested to calling Rogers and giving him directions to his girlfriend’s place. Dixon related that Samaroo, whom he had only known for three days, Depeazar and Rogers, who he knew for a while, were in the car when it came for him.
Under cross-examination by Hughes, he said he was surprised that Samaroo was in the car, but he did not find it strange. Dixon said Samaroo had told him that he wanted to come for the drive.
Hughes suggested to Dixon that he and Rogers spoke about what they were going to say in court, since they got the summons. Dixon, however told the lawyer that they never discussed any story but they did talk about other things.
The trial continues on April 21.
