Trio committed to stand trial in teen's murder

The preliminary inquiry into the 2013 murder of 17-year-old Reno David ended yesterday as a Port of Spain Magistrate found that there was sufficient evidence for youths, Khalid Abdul Malik, Jonathan Lawrence Johnson and Shakeel Hernandez to stand trial for murder. The trio appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle yesterday who made the ruling.

Attorney Ian Brooks stood in for Keston Pope is not in the country. Brooks conducted a rigorous cross-examination of witnesses Sergeant Cornelius Samuel and constables Collin Furlong and Kareem Martin. Following the cross-examination, Earle-Caddle after carefully examining statements and points raised by the defence ruled that there was sufficient evidence for the trio to stand trial for David's murder at the Port of Spain High Court.

Asked if they would be providing evidence or witnesses in their matter the trio chose to remain silent and refused to call witnesses to their defence. Earle-Caddle also reminded the accused that if they claimed to be elsewhere at the time of the murder they should either file the names of the persons with whom they claimed to be and the address for which these persons can be found.

Malik, Hernandez and Johnson are currently awaiting a date for their trial at the High Court, following the submission of the file by Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Roger Gaspard.

The trio were arrested with the murder of David in December 2013 after his decomposing body was found in a shallow grave in Maracas.

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"Trio committed to stand trial in teen's murder"

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