(Trinidad Guardian) A veteran attorney who ordered a hit on his secretary that he suspected of snitching about his illegal activities, has lost his appeal against his conviction for attempted murder.
Delivering a written judgement, yesterday morning, Appellate Judges Alice Yorke- Soo Hon, Malcolm Holdip, and Ronnie Boodoosingh rejected all the grounds of appeal raised by Joseph Melville and affirmed the 19 year prison sentence he received when he was convicted in 2017.
In the appeal, Melville’s main ground of contention was the fact that the trial judge who presided over his case allowed prosecutors to use the preliminary inquiry testimony of one of the State’s main witnesses Ainsley Alleyne.
Alleyne, one of three men allegedly hired by Melville to murder his secretary Patricia Cox, was murdered before the trial of the case and his testimony during the inquiry was allowed in evidence.
Melville’s lawyer Evans Welch challenged the process used by prosecutors to tender his deposition, as he questioned their method of proving that a headless body identified as Alleyne was in fact him through a photograph and fingerprints.
Responding to Welch, attorneys Travers Sinanan and Tricia Hudlin-Cooper said the trial judge was best placed to decide whether Alleyne’s deposition could be used based on the totality of the evidence before her.
In their judgement, the appeal panel noted that while the judge used an incorrect procedure to tender Alleyne’s photograph in evidence for his aunt to identify him, the photograph could have still been used.
The panel also disagreed with Melville’s attorney over whether the State had provided enough evidence to support its claim that Alleyne was deceased and could not testify.
The panel also rejected complaints over Alleyne’s testimony, in which he (Alleyne) allegedly made prejudicial statements over Melville’s character.
“In the event that the judge had given the specific warning to the jury on how to deal with the impugned evidence in relation to the credibility limb of the good character direction, we do not believe that it would have made a difference to the verdict given the strength of the evidence,” they said.
According to the evidence in the case, Alleyne, Hilton Winchester and Jason Holder were hired by Melville to kidnap and kill Cox in 2001.
Alleyne had claimed that on June 28, 2001, he was approached by Melville, through a mutual friend Holder, and was offered $40,000 to kill Cox.
“He said she (Cox) was talking his business with the police and Fraud Squad was getting close,” Alleyne said.
Cox, in her testimony, had admitted that she had threatened to report him after she learned that he (Melville) had cashed in two insurance policies and failed to pay them to his client.
Alleyne testified that he, Holder and Winchester got instructions from Melville to drive to and wait by his office at Pembroke Street in Port-of-Spain where Cox would meet them, for what she believed would be a drive to collect legal documents at a client’s home.
He said that after Cox got into the car, Winchester drove to Cumberland Hill in St James.
Before reaching the location, Alleyne “locked” Cox’s neck while Holder stripped her of her clothes and jewelry.
He admitted to attempting to sexually assault Cox in the car but claimed to have stopped after she said she said she was on her period.
Alleyne said that upon reaching the location, they took Cox out of the car and placed her to sit on a boulder next to a precipice as they pondered how they would kill her as they had no knives or guns.
“He (Holder) picked up a stone and said it would be the fastest way to do it,” Alleyne said.
He said that Cox was begging for her life and he informed her that it was Melville who had hired them to kill her.
Cox then offered to pay them a larger sum to forgo killing her.
“I asked her if she wanted to hide out and pretend to be dead and we would split the money with her when we got paid,” he said.
Before she could respond to her proposal, she jumped off the precipice and ran into a forested area. Holder found her but was forced to let her go after a man who was hiking in the area saw the incident through his binoculars and raised an alarm.
Cox said she hid for a while and then hiked through the forested area through the night until she reached a housing development the next morning.
Melville, Alleyne, Holder and Winchester were charged with the crime. Alleyne was made a State witness, while Holder was freed at the preliminary inquiry stage.
Winchester was convicted alongside Melville in 2004 and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Melville appealed his initial conviction and got a retrial.