Murder accused Clifton Graham identified two men to police as the persons who killed taxi driver Rawlston Bernard Henry, according to a caution statement admitted into evidence at his trial.
Graham, who has denied killing Henry, is on trial before Justice Roxane George and a 12-member jury for the crime, which he is accused of committing between May 2, and May 3, 2009 at Onion Field, La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara.
Reading the statement to the court yesterday was Sergeant Radesh Persaud, who had previously testified that it was he, in the presence of Detective Inspector Dennis Adams, who had written the statement as the accused had dictated it to him.
According to the statement, Graham told the investigators that on May 2, 2009, he went to the Better Hope residence of the man he identified as ‘Coolie,’ after which they went together to the residence of another, identified as Gladwin, at Plaisance Squatting Area.
He said they all remained there until six that evening, before going back to Better Hope, where they visited another residence. He said ‘Coolie’ told him to wait there and left with Gladwin for Georgetown.
Graham is reported to have said that the two men returned about 10 that evening with a grey car, which Gladwin was driving. He said the men told him to check the trunk of the vehicle and when he did he saw “a man tied up and lie down in the car trunk.”
Graham, the statement details, then told police that he, in the company of ‘Coolie’ and Gladwin then went to the pasture area at LBI. He said Gladwin again was driving the car.
According to the statement, once they had gotten there, Gladwin told Graham to wait in the car and be on the lookout for police, while he and ‘Coolie’ took the man out the trunk and walked him to the pasture.
The man, the court heard, tried to escape, but Gladwin held onto him. Graham told police he waited for a while until he saw only Gladwin and ‘Coolie’ return; they were both carrying blood-stained choppers.
Graham said he then enquired from them what had happened to the taxi driver and was told by Gladwin that he had killed him. Graham, according to the statement, added that Gladwin pointed to a teardrop tattooed below his left eye and said, “That is when he kill he friend, and he gat fuh put another one under it.”
He said they then left the area, after which Gladwin went back to the squatting area to collect a friend, before leaving for the “Plaisance Four Corner,” where they stayed until the 5.30 the next morning.
During cross-examination, defence attorney Maxwell McKay asked Persaud if there was anything from the statement which stated that the accused went with the two men to kill, or assisted them to kill. The witness said no.
Meanwhile, also testifying yesterday was Adams, who corroborated Persaud’s story of being present when he wrote the caution statement made by the accused.
Before the conclusion of yesterday’s hearing, Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy told the court that the State has two final witnesses to call, both of whom it had been unable to contact up to that point.
She was successful in getting an adjournment to make a final effort to contact government pathologist Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan, and civilian witness, Kurt Dean.
Sergeant Persaud had previously testified to contacting Dean, who said he had overheard a conversation among the accused and other men, when one said, “Clifton hold down de man, and ‘Fine Man’ cut he throat and kill he.”
Hardy added that repeated checks were made at Brijmohan’s office and calls to both his mobile and landline numbers, but to no avail. She said that according to information received, he is on leave.
“He is not answering his cell phone nor landline,” the prosecutor related.
At the time, Hardy was making these submissions to the court, she said the prosecution was still awaiting word from ranks who were sent to Dean’s home in yet another bid to locate him.
The prosecutor said that if these two witnesses cannot be found, then the prosecution will have to close its case.
The trial, which is being heard at the High Court in Georgetown, continues this morning at 9.30.
