Bartica resident Jaiwattie Singh yesterday recounted a raid by unknown bandits, who riddled her home with bullets on the night of February 17, 2008 and carted off a quantity of gold, and left her family still traumatized to the present day.
Singh was at the time testifying at the trial of Mark Royden Williams, Dennis Williams, called ‘Anaconda’, and Roger Simon, who are accused of murdering 12 persons, including three police officers, at Bartica in 2008.
The charge against the trio is that on February 17, 2008 at Bartica, they murdered Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron Osborne, Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasseen, Errol Thomas, and Baldeo Singh.
A voir dire, which is underway in the trial, was temporarily halted for the prosecution to interpose Singh’s testimony in the main trial before the jury.
The woman, who said she operated a business from her residence, told the court that she was at home on the night in question with her family looking at a cricket match, when about 9.15, she heard rapid sounds, which she presumed to be gunshots.
Singh said she drew her son’s attention to what she had heard and he peeked through her bedroom window and later told her something. Based on what he told her, “I felt good at the time,” Singh noted.
She said that a short while after, she heard some boys saying they were “coming for ‘Mango Man.’” The witness said that her husband, Gurudat Singh, is also known by the name “Mango Man.”
The woman related to the court that she then heard a knocking at her gate and a banging on the grills affixed to the lower flat of her home, which was followed by a pounding on the wall.
Singh, who said that she was in the upper flat of her home at this time, told the court that she then heard the internal door to the premises being broken, and footsteps ascending the inner stairway.
She said that at that time, she and her daughter hid in a room, while her husband and two sons hid in another.
The woman told the court that from where she was hiding, she heard persons whom she referred to as unknown bandits/robbers, in another room pulling out drawers, breaking windows and firing shots in the house.
Singh, who said that she and her family had taken off all the lights in the house before the bandits broke in, related to the court that from the room in which she was hiding, she could hear a voice saying, “pass the light.”
The witness said that she then heard a voice say, “don’t bother with the light, we find de ting.”
Singh, who related to the court that she had gold in the same room from which the voices were coming, related that shortly after, she heard footsteps running down the stairs.
The woman said that even after all the sounds in her home had ceased, she did not come out of hiding until about 45 minutes later.
The businesswoman said that after making checks, she discovered that the gold was missing, along with two attaché cases.
Singh said that thereafter, her family found that one of the doors to the lower flat of the house appeared as if it were cut open. The woman, who said that her home was tightly secured with heavy grill-work, noted to the court that she and her family discovered a sledgehammer in a chair.
She said too that the wall to the southern side of the house and the ventilation blocks were broken about 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches wide. The lights to the lower flat, she said, were on.
Singh said that the wall-divider was ransacked and the grill door leading to the shop area was opened. She said that a gate in the shop area was also open and all the windows shattered.
Asked under cross-examination by defence attorney Peter Hugh if her home was secured with CCTV cameras, or a security guard, Singh said no.
Responding to further questions from Hugh, the witness said that the day after the attack, two police officers visited her home and took written statements. When asked, she told counsel that the lawmen did nothing, except take statements.
Asked whether she saw the lawmen photographing the scene, the woman, who said she was very traumatized then and still is now, told the court that she could not remember seeing her home being photographed by police after the attack.
She recalled to counsel that she saw a “guy” fingerprinting her home but, again, said that she was too traumatized to recall whether he had identified himself to her as a police officer.
“Maybe this guy did identify himself to me as a police officer. I don’t remember,” Singh told Hugh when he enquired.
Asked whether “the guy” was dressed in police clothes or plain clothes, the witness told counsel the latter, but noted that she could not remember if he had visited her home the same time as two police officers.
“We were so traumatized—unto now I’m still traumatized,” Singh emphasized repeatedly.
She said she saw “the guy” dusting the doors and drawers for fingerprints.
Asked finally if she ever saw the two police officers or “the guy” take anything from her home when they visited, Singh said she did not.
The trial, which is being heard by Justice Roxane George and a 12-member jury, will continue at 9 on Monday morning at the High Court in Georgetown.
The State’s case is being presented by Prosecutors Diana Kaulesar and Stacy Goodings, while defence attorneys Hugh, Saphier Hussain, and Roger Yearwood are representing Simon, Dennis Williams and Mark Williams, respectively.
