The trial over the death of Ian Mekdeci in a car accident began on Tuesday at the Georgetown Magis-trate’s Court before Magistrate Leron Daly and CCTV footage of the crash was shown yesterday.
During the proceedings on Tuesday the magistrate stated that she found the video of the accident to be admissible in court and therefore it would be added to the case files.
The accused Roberto Narine along with family members of Mekdeci were present in court on Tuesday, however attorney-at-law, Siand Dhurjon, who represents Narine was absent, citing unforeseen circumstances. Notwith-standing, Magistrate Daly instructed that if he was not present at the next court date she would go ahead and have the video played in court.
Yesterday, the court reconvened for the continuation of the trial where witness, Sheik Baksh, took the stand to testify. An application was also granted for the video to be tendered as an exhibit and shown in open court. Dhurjon was again not present.
The video showed that on the day the incident occurred, the car that Mekdeci was in had the green light to proceed while the accused’s vehicle ran through the red light at a fast rate, hitting car, which was being driven by Baksh, in the intersection.
Magistrate Daly informed Narine that if his lawyer fails to appear at the next hearing, he (Narine) will be given the opportunity to cross-examine the witness, Baksh.
Previously the defence attorney had objected to Prosecutor Latchmi Rahamat’s application for the video to be tendered into evidence in the court citing that it would have passed through several channels causing the image to be distorted or edited. In addition, he also said it had multiple layers of hearsay evidence, rendering it flawed. However, Rahamat, at that proceeding had reminded Dhurjon that the prosecution had already provided evidence of nexus having been maintained. “No one else has access to what was extracted and what was brought to the court was the extracted footage and the flash [drive] was burnt onto a DVD,” she said.
She also emphasised that the evidence being tendered was of CCTV footage, and not a phone camera video, hence it was admissible.
At yesterday’s hearing, the magistrate made note of all aspects of the video and placed it into the court record. The matter now stands adjourned.
On May 1, 2022, the fatal accident occurred at around 2:15 am at the intersection of Sandy Babb Street and Vlissengen Road involving a SUV, PTT 4136, driven by Narine, and a car, PXX 4592, driven by Baksh, with passenger, Mekdeci.
During the investigation, enquiries disclosed that the SUV was proceeding along Vlissengen Road whilst the car was proceeding west along Sandy Babb Street and at the intersection, the driver of the car crossed on the green light.
It was alleged that the driver of the SUV failed to stop at the intersection which resulted in a collision with the car.
As a result of the collision, both vehicles were damaged extensively. The occupants of the car, PXX 4592, Baksh and Mekdeci, both suffered injuries and were taken to the George-town Public Hospital by ambulance in an unconscious condition. Mekdeci later succumbed to his injuries, while the driver, Baksh, was admitted suffering from a broken left arm, lacerations to the head and a punctured left lung.
