Moruga man acquitted of 2010 wounding charge

A Moruga man has been acquitted of planassing a fellow villager in 2010.

A jury found Williace Rodriguez not guilty on June 21.

He was before Justice Devan Rampersad charged with wounding Andrew Gabaro with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, in a four-day trial which ended with his being freed by the judge after the jury returned its verdict.

The State alleged Rodriguez and another man, Shazim Lalloosingh, attacked Gabaro at his St Mary’s Village home on September 26, 2008.

Lalloosingh previously pleaded guilty and took the blame for the incident.

Gabaro’s evidence was read to the jury, as he died before the matter came to trial. He claimed the men pulled up to his home and started planassing him with two cutlasses they took from his house, and also chopped him on the hand. It was alleged there was a disagreement over boundaries between his property and a neighbour’s.

At the time of the incident, he said he was fencing around his place.

Gabaro was taken to the St Mary’s police station, where he made a report.

In his defence, Rodriguez admitted he had been present, but tried to part the fight, and did not have a cutlass in his hand.

Defence attorney Michelle Ali, of the public defenders’ department, put it to the officer who investigated the report, PC Joseph Lambert, that he did an incomplete investigation, without bothering to take statements from witnesses who were present on the day, and only took one statement from Gabaro.

Ali also suggested to Lambert that he failed to take her client’s statement when he tried to tell his side of the story.

Rodriguez was also represented by Markus Issac, also of the public defenders’ department.