Taking the stand yesterday to tell his story of how he was nearly killed, Deonarine Persaud recalled being chopped several times by his neighbour on the night of September 24th 2011.
The neighbour, Andy Boodram, called “Boy,” who vehemently denies ever attempting to murder Persaud, is now on trial before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12-member jury at the Georgetown High Court.
According to Persaud, also known as “Anil,” the attack stemmed from an earlier request he had made to Boodram, asking him to lower his music as his infant son was ill at the time and asleep.
Despite repeated appeals, the witness said Boodram, who hurled a series of expletives at him, refused to turn down the loud music.
After some time of exchanging words, during which Persaud admitted to also cursing Boodram, he told the court that he saw the man’s brother-in-law, and asked him to ask Boodram to lower the music.
The witness said that the brother-in-law’s request was also unsuccessful, noting that he then heard the accused saying he would not be turning down the music “and he wouldn’t be talking to me anymore and he would do wah he got to do.”
Persaud told the court that just about that time, as he stood conversing with a friend in front of his yard, he heard his friend exclaim, “Anil run! Boy coming with a cutlass!”
He said, however, that he did not run at that time and just as he turned towards the direction from which his attacker was coming, he encountered the man swinging a cutlass in front of him.
In the midst of inflicting numerous broadsides, Persaud said that Boodram chopped him twice on the head and once to his left thumb as he tried to bar the chops. He showed the court the scars which he said were the result of the attack.
Persaud said he fell to the ground and remembered clearly seeing the accused standing over, and still broadsiding him, moments before losing consciousness. He later woke in the Georgetown Public Hospital.
He recalled being hospitalised for some six months, during which time he had to undergo several surgeries and had to do numerous follow-up treatments.
Boodram’s story, however, is that he never chopped the complainant. His attorney George Thomas was adamant that it was Persaud and another person who had attacked his client.
According to counsel, the other person in whose company Persaud was at the time, had been wielding the cutlass at Boodram but it missed and connected with Persaud instead, resulting in the injuries he sustained.
Under cross-examination, the complainant disagreed with counsel’s suggestion that it was a fight and that he was injured during a scuffle.
He also disagreed with Thomas’ suggestion that he was armed and that he was making up the story.”
“It was he [Boodram] who chopped me with a cutlass,” the witnesses asserted.
The trial continues this morning at 9.
The state’s case is being led by Prosecutor Abigail Gibbs, in association with Shawnette Austin and Tiffini Lyken.
