Sean Luke murder trial ends; verdict on July 23

A THIRD partial DNA profile found on the cane stalk inserted into the body of six-year-old Sean Luke, killing him, is no “smoking gun” evidence as alleged by the defence. It is merely a flare gun or caps gun, creating lots of smoke and noise, prosecutors have advanced in their closing arguments at the end of the trial on Friday.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal on Friday, completed her closing address to Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds who is presiding over the judge-only trial of Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo, both charged with Luke’s murder in 2006.

Dougdeen-Jaglal took the judge through the State’s evidence against the two and also countered the suppositions of the defence, saying their inferences and conclusions were not reasonable when stacked against the circumstantial and scientific evidence.

“Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo have been pointing fingers at others from the start and when they did that fingers pointed back at them.”

According to the DNA evidence provided by an independent expert witnesses, Dr Maurice Aboud and scientific officer Camille Grant, traces of DNA were found on the cane stalk which was inserted into Luke’s anus which ruptured his internal organs, killing him; Luke’s pants, underpants and his penis.

Only Mitchell’s DNA profile was found on the boy’s underpants but the presence of a third person was identified in a partial profile on the cane stalk

This third person, both Mitchell’s and Chatoo’s attorneys have suggested, belonged to one of the State’s main witnesses, Avinash Baboolal.

Baboolal was the eldest of the group of boys who went on a fishing expedition on March 26, 2006, the day Luke disappeared near his Orange Valley West, Couva home. It is the State’s case, that Mitchell and Chatoo took Luke into the abandoned cane field where he was sodomised and killed.

Mitchell and Chatoo’s attorneys, in their closing arguments, say Baboolal had questions to answer, but Dougdeen-Jaglal rubbished this theory as she pointed to the DNA evidence presented in the case.

“This third profile… The defence wants to suggest it is the smoking gun and it is Avinash Baboolal’s profile and it means Avinash Baboolal sexually interfered with Sean Luke and had a hand in his death.

“They say that is the real killer… Avinash is the real killer. They are pointing fingers at others but there are other fingers pointing at them. It is a flare gun, a caps gun.”

She said the partial profile discovered on the cane stalk was insufficient for matching purposes, even if they had Baboolal’s profile available. She also noted that the partial profile were extracted from a cellular fraction or epithelial cells (found in skin, hair, blood) and not penile swabs.

“Cellular fraction is where this comes from not penile swabs. This is smoke…noise of a caps gun, not real bullets.”

She said if Baboolal was the villain, the defence wanted the court to believe he was, he would not be contributing a minor DNA sequence but would be “lighting this up like a Christmas tree,” referring to charts prepared by Aboud. She also pointed out that Baboolal’s evidence was that one of Chatoo’s younger nephews also went into the cane field with Luke.

“The State’s case isn’t two people went in; on Avinash’s account three people went in,” adding that the third unknown profile was only good to put in a box with the label: Good to throw away.

“It doesn’t say anything.”

As she focused further on the DNA evidence, she submitted, “What is the strength of the DNA in this case? Swabs and cuttings taken from which the analyst got complete profile of Akeel Mitchell from the sperm fraction.

“Dr Aboud said the sperm fraction is harder to crack – if forensic science saying sperm is identified and I get DNA from a sperm fraction, this fraction is sperm.

“Whose sperm is it? Akeel Mitchell’s.

“Where is this DNA? The swab inside the lower crotch area (of Luke’s pants), anal area, piece of fabric from the briefs at the back of the crotch.

“He gets two complete hits complete male DNA profile which match Akeel Mitchell. It doesn’t stop there. He gets a profile from a cellular fraction, that Mitchell couldn’t be excluded as a contributor.

She also asked the judge to take note of the size of the cane stalk inserted into Luke and the size of the stump where his clothing was found.

In her closing arguments, the assistant DPP went through the statements of both Mitchell and Chatoo. She also advised the judge how she should treat Baboolal’s testimony and the conflicting statements he gave.

“He has every reason to be terrified of being wrongfully accused just as he has been done by the defence.”

She also urged Ramsumair-Hinds to also consider the socio-economic backgrounds of the boys at the time.

“There is a difference and that manifested itself in the worst possible way in this case.” Mitchell, she said, was not a country mouse, unlike the others who were from the Orange Valley or, in Chatoo’s case, originally from Manzanilla, before he moved with his mother to his step-father’s home, three houses away from Luke.

She also said Chatoo was someone Luke trusted. Dougdeen-Jaglal said the statement Chatoo gave to the police implicating himself and Mitchell wasn’t the “tall tale” he alleged it was to fit in with the police’s version, but was the real “smoking gun.”

She said the plan was to lure Luke into the cane field to have sex with him and it ended with the boy being sodomised with the cane stalk until he was dead. Chatoo’s nephews were used as a ruse to get Luke to go with them on the fishing trip, she added.

“Richard takes the police back, to the place where the clothes (Luke’s) were.

“…Is it that he remembered the place because he had been there and seen and had done terrible things in this cane field.”

She also said Chatoo’s conscience worked on him and the truth came forward in parts.

She also said the circumstantial evidence in the case, included: the “last-seen” testimony of Baboolal and the other main witness, Arvis Pradeep, who said they saw Mitchell and Chatoo enter the cane field with Luke; the screaming; Luke not returning with the two when they emerged from the cane; the underwear and pants found 100 feet from where Luke’s body was discovered; the DNA evidence from the sperm fraction pointing to Mitchell; testimony of Mitchell being seen going back into the field; conflicting reports, including from Mitchell and Chatoo of Luke being last seen with a tall man, in a white shirt; and the boy’s body found sodomised with a cane stalk inserted up to his collarbone, approximately 12 joints long as described by Chatoo.

“That is the ‘Demerara Gold,’” referring the use of the analogy by Chatoo’s attorney, Evans Welch, who likened the State’s case to artificial sweeteners- bitter and fake.

Dougdeen-Jaglal said the circumstantial evidence was not a weaker form of evidence, but was in some ways, more powerful. This, added to the “powerful and not wishy washy DNA evidence,” she said, have shown that Mitchell and Chatoo were “guilty as charge of this murder.”

At the end of Dougdeen-Jaglal’s closing, Ramsumair-Hinds addressed Mitchell and Chatoo, “That is the sum total of what I have to consider.”

She explained to them she was the judge of both the facts and the law, and they will now how she applied both as it relates to the indictment when she returns her verdict on July 23.

“I will do what is required of me in the next 14 days. You remain remanded in custody until July 23 at 10 am, when next you see me, all things being equal, I will return my verdict on the indictment.”

Luke’s body was found on March 28, in a bushy area in the cane field close to his home at Henry Street Extension, Orange Valley, Couva, two days after he went missing. An autopsy showed he died from internal injuries arising from being sodomised with a cane stalk.

Also representing Mitchell and Chatoo are attorneys Mario Merritt, Randal Raphael, Kirby Joseph, Kelston Pope and Gabriel Hernandez. Also appearing for the prosecution are State attorneys Anju Bhola and Sophia Sandy-Smith.