Biche farmer found not guilty

BICHE farmer Steven Samaroo lingered a couple of minutes after being told he was free to go, so as to thank the jurors who found him not guilty of chopping a fellow villager in 2005.

Samaroo was before Justice Gillian Lucky at the Port of Spain High Court on Thursday charged with chopping Visham Ramoutar in the early hours of August 7, 2005. Although he first went on trial for attempted murder, it was later amended to wounding with intent. An even lesser charge of unlawful wounding was also put as an option. After deliberating for almost two hours, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on both alternate counts of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding. Samaroo’s trial was the first for the fast-track court and lasted five days.

Lucky, who led the initiative, also disclosed that the other fast-track trial in the Tobago High Court was also completed in the same time and a jury had returned a verdict in that case, also yesterday. Cases have also started in the San Fernando High Court and on Thursday a man pleaded guilty in that court’s first fast-track trial.

The aim of the fast-track court is to ensure that matters can be tried within a short period of time. There are similar sittings in the San Fernando and Tobago High Courts and judges have been rostered and matters are being listed for hearing during the court’s “long vacation.”

The cases listed for hearing are non-capital matters which have not more than two accused and which can be determined in three to five days. The initiative is aimed at reducing the backlog of cases in the system. At his trial, Samaroo denied chopping Ramoutar, instead suggesting that he was chopped by another villager who was attacking him. Attorney Joy Balkaran prosecuted while defence attorney was Fulton Wilson.