New witness grilled by defence in Sean Luke trial

A new witness gave evidence on Wednesday in the challenge of the prosecution’s evidence against the two men charged with the murder of six-year-old Sean Luke.

Acting Cpl Brendon Fraser was grilled by attorneys for Richard Chatoo at a virtual trial on Wednesday on the evidence he intends to give at the main trial.

Also returning for questioning by Chatoo’s attorneys was police audio visual technician, Cpl Nigel Stephen.

Both Chatoo and his co-accused, Akeel Mitchell, have challenged the quality of parts of the prosecution’s evidence at a session known as a voir dire.

After all the witnesses give their evidence, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds will give her ruling on both men’s voir dire after which the main trial is expected to begin. It was tentatively set to start on March 15, however, this is not likely to happen as there are two witnesses still to give evidence and submissions would have to be made before the judge gives her ruling.

Ramsumair-Hinds is presiding over a judge-alone trial.

Earlier in the sitting, Mitchell’s attorney Mario Merritt asked for an “in-Chamber” hearing to discuss something that arose from Monday’s session.

At that session, the judge had allowed Merritt’s team to file a defence statement for their client since two had been filed and she was not certain if the second was an amendment of the first.

The judge pointed out that she was mandated by law to read out the defence statement to the accused and into the record.

However, not knowing if the second was an amendment of the first, she said she would have to read both. Merritt said it was not his intention that the first be read to Mitchell and explained there was some internal miscommunication with his team which led to two being filed.

The judge had also shared the last page of the two documents using the Microsoft Teams (MS) software being used by the Judiciary for virtual trials, showing the signatures on both of them.

On Wednesday, Merritt said what he wanted to raise with the judge, he wanted to do so without the media being present.

Although the judge said she could not appreciate the need for a closed sitting since the matter was an open court one and there was no jury which could be prejudiced, she nevertheless created a separate MS Teams link to hold the in-Chamber session with the attorneys.

The matter continues on Monday.