Steve Allicock is likely to know his fate today, after a jury deliberates on the case against him for the 2009 murder of Wendell Tappin, who he is accused of stabbing.
At the close of the prosecution’s case yesterday, Allicock professed his innocence. Opting to lead his defence in unsworn testimony from the prisoner’s dock, he told the court he was not in the country at the time of the killing.
It has been the defence’s contention that Allicock was in neighbouring Suriname when the alleged murder took place. According to the accused, he only learnt of the killing after his return to Guyana.
Testifying before the close of the state’s case, were Pathologist Dr Vivekanand Brijmohan and sister of the deceased, Natasha Tappin. Justice Navindra Singh, on Friday issued arrest warrants for both of these witnesses, who failed to attend court, even after police had gone to their respective residences, informing them to be at court. Both witnesses were present at court yesterday morning for 9.
In his testimony, Dr Brijmohan gave Tappin’s cause of death as shock and haemorrhage, and stab wound to the heart.
Tappin, meanwhile, recounted taking her brother to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
After his testimony, Dr Brijmohan apologized to the court for the inconvenience his absence caused on Friday, stating that “it was in no way intentional.”
Justice Singh had told the court that lawmen reported to him, that on arriving at Dr Brijmohan’s Berbice residence, they found that he had “barricaded” himself in his house and refused to come out.
Tappin, on the other hand, “disappeared” from her residence after police arrived.
The judge had said the police related to him that after arriving at Tappin’s address, they informed her that she needed to be at court. Thereafter, he said the woman asked the lawmen for some time to prepare, but instead went inside, locked the door and “disappeared” as they waited.
The trial continues this morning at 9, when the judge will sum-up the case and hand it over to the jury for deliberations and the possible return of a verdict.
The capital indictment against Allicock, is that on December 31, 2009, at Hill Street, Albouystown, Georgetown, he murdered Tappin, called ‘Keyco,’ who he is accused of knifing to death.
While defence attorney Maxwell Mc Kay has argued that his client was in Suriname at the time of the killing, the state contends that he fled to Suriname, only after committing the offence.
In his testimony, father of the deceased, Dan Tappin, refuted the claims advanced by the defence.
He told the court that he was on the scene when the accused, who he has known for more than 20 years, stabbed his son.
Wendell Tappin, a father of two, was 23 years old at the time of his death.
