Second autopsy was done on Koury

DR GEORGE Laquis said yesterday he asked that a second autopsy be done on the body of his nephew-in-law, murdered businessman Dr Eddie Koury, because he was not satisfied with the conclusion of the one done by the State’s pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes.

Laquis was called for cross- examination by the defence at the trial of the five men charged with Koury’s murder.

He said he was aware that des Vignes had done the first autopsy, and he asked Dr Shaheeba Barrow to do a second one. Laquis said Barrow was chosen because of her competency, but she was not a friend.

He insisted that the evidence did not support des Vignes’ conclusion since he had examined Koury’s body when it was found.

“Dr des Vignes is not God. We all make mistakes. No one questioned Dr des Vignes’ competency. I got a diagnosis I thought was faulty. I am a trained physician doing this for 71 years, I know how to get to a conclusion,” he told attorney Mario Merritt, who questioned his (Laquis’) competency since he was not a pathologist.

In her testimony in February, Barrow insisted that Koury was already dead before his head was cut off.

She described as “outrageous” the findings of cause of death by des Vignes, saying it was not supported by evidence.

Barrow said, in her opinion after she examined Koury’s body externally and internally and also looked at skin tissue samples she collected, he died as a result of haemorrhage shock, or blood loss, resulting from a stab to the right thigh.

She said from her findings, death would have most likely occurred one to three hours after he was stabbed. The decapitation, she said, took place after he was dead.

Barrow said when she examined the tissue around Koury’s neck there were no signs of bleeding, which meant when his head was cut off, he was already dead.

Koury, the managing director of ISKO Enterprises, an import and distribution company in the Macoya industrial estate, was abducted from his office on September 21, 2005. Two days later, his headless corpse was found in central Trinidad.

On trial before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the First Criminal Court are Shawn James, Caleb Donaldson, Jerome Murray, Terry Moore and Robert Franklyn. The trial continues today.