Third man claims innocence in Duke St murder

THE third of three men charged with the murder of a Duke Street, Port of Spain, couple in 2005 has denied any involvement in the killing.

Devon Sookoo, who goes by the nicknames Chicken – because he is skinny and hard – and Punch Man – because he ran a punch cart on evenings mainly in Port of Spain and St James – said on the morning of January 12, 2005,when the couple was killed, he was “pulling a lil bull” with his brother’s car, after dropping some of his nephews and nieces to school in Barataria and St Augustine.

Sookoo lived with his brother Learie Williams and his wife and their seven children at Upper Laventille Road, Trou Macaque.

Sookoo, who is charged alongside Kamau Farai and Hamid Neils with the murders of Susan Rajcoomar and her common-law husband Shyam Ramdass, testified in his defence at his trial before Justice Maria Wilson.

He denied taking part in the murders, or lying in court, saying the only “make-up story” was the allegation against him.

“I was not involved in their murder," he testified.

Sookoo also said he did not know the couple's son Johan Rajcoomar, who was shot in the face during the incident and who implicated him as one of his parents’ killers in his statement to police.

Johan was killed in 2017, but his evidence from the preliminary inquiry at the magistrates’ court has been tendered into evidence at the trial.

As he recounted what he did on the morning of January 12, 2005, he said after dropping his nieces and nephews, he went back into Laventille where he recalled picking up two women, Cheryl and Rachel, and taking them into Port of Spain. Cheryl was dropped off on Independence Square and Rachel at Back to Basics supermarket, where she worked.

He insisted he did not go to Oxford Street that morning, or to the couple's house at 4 Oxford Street.

Sookoo said when he was arrested on February 4, 2005, the police did not ask him about the two women he picked up, but he gave their names in his alibi at the magistrates’ court.

He also said the first time he saw Johan was when the man testified at the magistrates’ court, and added that the evidence Johan gave then was lies.

Under cross-examination by senior prosecutor Joy Balkaran, Sookoo admitted he never gave Cheryl or Rachel’s full names, and the first time he spoke of having dropped off his nieces and nephews was on October 11, 2016, when he gave his notice of alibi to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Rajcoomar, 51, was shot and chopped on the head, neck and hands and died minutes after the attack. Ramdass, 52, who was also shot and had his left hand severed, died later at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

The trial continues.

Sookoo is represented by defence attorney Kirk Hogan, Farai by defence attorney Larry Williams and Neils by defence attorney Ravi Rajcoomar.