Judge to begin summing up in Koury murder Nov 18

JUSTICE Malcolm Holdip will begin his summation in the Eddie Koury murder trial on November 18.

On Wednesday he gave the date for the start of his review of the evidence to the jury and his directions on how they should apply the law to the evidence to arrive at their verdict.

He did not say how long his summation will last, but after he has completed it, the jury will then be invited to consider its verdict.

After five days, lead prosecutor Nigel Pilgrim concluded his closing address to the jury, reminding them of the prosecution’s evidence and advising them how to treat with what were deemed inconsistencies in the evidence, telling them while they could reject some of a witness’s evidence, the law also permitted them to accept some of it.

“Or you can reject all,” he said.

The State opened its case against the five men charged with Koury’s murder in November last year. On trial before Holdip at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain are: Shawn James, Caleb Donaldson, Jerome Murray, Terry Moore and Robert Franklyn.

In their closing addresses, defence lawyers trashed the prosecution’s evidence and raised issues over the credibility of its witnesses, particularly the police witnesses.

Testifying at the year-long trial were police officers involved in the investigation, Koury’s former employees, a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) DNA analyst from Quantico, Virginia, United States, and two pathologists.

Also presented were statements allegedly given by James, who allegedly confessed to the police that he transported Koury’s body after he was stabbed at his office, removed his head and dumped it. His fingerprint was allegedly found on a metal money tin at Koury’s office.

Also included in the prosecution’s arsenal of evidence were DNA matches of Koury’s blood on the shoes of at least three of the men – Donaldson, Murray and Moore – and a gun found at a house in D’Abadie, where three were arrested, which matched bullet casings found at Koury’s office.

DNA evidence was also found on the gun, which the prosecution says links the men to the murder, while Franklyn was said to have rented a car allegedly used to transport the businessman’s body. DNA samples found on the back headrest of the back seat did not exclude Koury’s DNA, according to the FBI analyst. Koury’s blood was also found on the trunk of a stolen taxi, which was also used to transport his body.

One of Franklyn’s former colleagues also testified that he received a phone call at the police’s E999 command centre on the day Koury was abducted from his ISKO Enterprises Ltd office at the Macoya industrial estate on September 21, 2005, and recognised Franklyn’s voice. Franklyn was a police officer and his wife was Koury’s personal assistant.

Two days after Koury was kidnapped, his headless body was found in central Trinidad. His head has never been found.

The men are represented by defence attorneys Daniel Khan, Evans Welch, Wayne Sturge and Mario Merritt.