Sean Luke accused plead not guilty as trial begins

THE two men charged for the murder of six-year-old Sean Luke back in 2006 have both pleaded not guilty.

Akeel Mitchell, 28, and Richard Chatoo, 30, went on trial on Friday before Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds at a judge-only trial. Both were arraigned by the judge and then allowed to enter their pleas. It is alleged that on a date unknown, between March 25 and 29, 2006, in Couva, the two men murdered Sean Luke.

The judge told them their trials had now started and there will be a verdict at the end of it.

The trial will be held both virtually and in-person.

Actual evidence will begin after attorneys for both sides go through a process called a voir dire at which the defence will challenge the admissibility of certain evidence by the prosecution.

The voir dire for Mitchell began on Friday with the testimony of three witnesses – two police officers from the Judiciary’s virtual access court facility in Port of Spain, and a former officer who testified virtually from the United States.

The next hearing of the voir dire is on February 17.

A witness expected to testify is in quarantine for covid19, and there will be witnesses who will be facilitated at either the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain or the High Court in San Fernando.

The logistics for the in-person hearing are still being worked out.

At the end of Mitchell’s voir dire, the judge will rule on the admissibility of the evidence challenged and will then begin a similar exercise for Chatoo, after which the actual trial will begin.

Luke’s body was found in a sugar cane field near his home two days after he went missing. The six year-old was sodomised with a sugar cane stalk which ruptured his intestines and other organs and which caused his death from internal bleeding.

Mitchell was 13 when he was arrested and Chatoo was 15.

At a pre-trial hearing last week, prosecutors said the State was still to get DNA results taken by homicide detectives in their investigations 15 years ago. It is still not certain if it will form part of the State’s evidence against the two men.

Before that, the judge was asked to rule on an application by Mitchell to permanently stay his indictment on the basis of a prosecutorial blunder. The judge declined and said there was no risk to a fair trial for either man.

Mitchell and Chatoo are represented by attorneys Mario Merritt, Evans Welch, Kirby Joseph, Randall Raphael, Kelston Pope and Gabriel Hernandez. Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal, Anju Bhola and Sophia Smith-Sandy are prosecuting.