Freed murder accused gunned down in Claxton Bay

Former kidnapping and murder accused Roger Mootoo was gunned down on his way to Cara Courts, the apartment complex where he lived, at St Margaret’s Village, Claxton Bay on Sunday morning.

Mootoo, also known as Roger Ravello, was returning to his home at building one when he was killed by gunmen who ambushed him around 4.30 am.

Owing to the name of the apartment building and the nearby Cara Suites Hotel and Conference Centre, one of the hotel's managers wanted to distance the hotel from the shooting.

“We are Cara Hotels or Cara Suites. We are not an apartment building. We are not affiliated with Cara Courts Apartments in any way. There was a killing, but it does not involve the hotel in any way.

“We are located on the same compound. However, they are two separate buildings. As you come up the hill, Cara Hotel is straight up. If you make an extreme right, you will get to Cara Courts.

“We want to distance our hotel from that shooting incident. It occurred nowhere close to our compound.”

Mootoo was one of nine men accused of the November 2015 kidnapping and murder of Petit Bourg businesswoman Samdaye Rampersad.

During the trial, forensic pathologist Hughvon des Vignes testified that Rampersad had been buried alive.

Her body was found 41 days after her kidnapping, in a shallow grave in a cashew field in Carolina Village, Claxton Bay.

Mootoo, Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, Ricky Singh, Kervin Williams and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie were convicted for manslaughter and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

On June 30, 2022, appellate judges Mark Mohammed, Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Prakash Moosai upheld an appeal from Boodram, on behalf of the men, over their manslaughter convictions, on the basis of errors made by the High Court judge who oversaw the defendants’ second retrial in 2016.

They were released after serving 17 years in prison. Three months after their release, in September 2022, Boodram was killed by police, during a shootout at Esperanza, Couva.

Police were responding to a report of robbery at the time, and chasing suspects in a vehicle, when there was an exchange of gunfire.

All three suspects were killed. The other men were identified as Malick Paul of Railway Road and Gerard Thorington of Goodwill Road, Enterprise.

Homicide Region III is continuing investigations in this latest murder.