Cop refuses to testify against 6 officers at murder trial

“FINISH THEM,” was the instruction one of the officers initially charged with the murders of three Moruga friends in Barrackpore in 2011 said was given before a man and a woman were taken to a lonely road.

The two were taken by police officers from Rochard Douglas Road in Barrackpore on July 22, 2011, to a lonely road off the M2 Ring Road.

The instruction was allegedly given by one of the officers on trial for the murders of Abigail Johnson, 23, Alana Duncan, 28, and Kerron “Fingers” Eccles.

Charged with the murders are Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo, along with PCs Ronald Riveiro, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman and Antonio Ramadhin.

It was Sahadeo who gave the instruction, WPC Nicole Clement said in the evidence she gave on March 7, 2013, at the preliminary inquiry into the murders at the Princes Town magistrates’ court.

Her deposition evidence had to be read out to the jury on Monday, after she was deemed a hostile witness by Justice Carla Brown-Antoine, who is presiding over the trial at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain.

From the moment she entered the witness box, Clement said she “would not be giving evidence in this matter because of safety and security concerns.”

She repeatedly told lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC, “I will not be giving evidence,” in response to his questions relating to statements she gave and her testimony at the preliminary inquiry.

After running through a series of questions, Peterson asked her if she would be answering any of his questions. “Respectfully, no.”

She maintained this position throughout and only deviated to say, “I will not be speaking any further.”

Clement was also questioned on her stance by Peterson after which she was deemed a hostile witness by the judge and her deposition read out to the jury.

In her evidence-in-chief at the inquiry, Clement was also questioned by Peterson.

She said she had known the six officers for three to four years. At the time, she was assigned to the robbery squad of the San Fernando Police Station and so were they. On Monday, she said she was still a member of the police service.

Clement was asked about an incident before July 22, 2011, in which she said just before 8 pm, they were on patrol in Diamond Village waiting on a white Nissan B15 driven by Shumba James.

James has testified at the trial and in opening statements to the jury, Peterson said the three friends were unintended targets. James, who was wanted for murder, was allegedly their target.

In her deposition, Clement said on July 22, 2011, Singh told them of information he had from Sgt Parriman that James was “going to put down a wuk and that he was wanted for a double murder on the Circular Road.”

She also said Singh related information from Snr Supt Baldeo that “if anything go wrong they would will take care of the mopping-up exercise.”

That, she said, meant “if anyone was killed, they see about covering the police.”

A short while later, she said she left with the six in two separate police vehicles using different routes. She also said Singh told them James was armed with two AK47 rifles and he “usually go around on weekends taxing businessmen.”

It was Clement's testimony that Juman asked about James’s girlfriend and Singh’s response was, “Bullets don’t have male or female written on it and if it come so what we will do…. was in the car when Shumba killed people on Circular Road.”

According to Clement, soon after they parked the two police vehicles by Singh’s auto shop at the corner of Gunnes Trace and Rochard Douglas Road, Barrackpore, she heard Ramadhin shout, “Look the vehicle.”

She said the others ran from behind the vehicles and simultaneously, she heard loud explosions. She took cover behind one of the police vehicles, then ran out opening fire using her MP5 (submachine gun).

She said none of the officers appeared wounded, shot or dead. After the gunshots ended, she said she walked to the back of one of the police vehicles and then in the direction of the white B15.

Clement said she saw a female driver sitting motionless in the driver's seat while Sahadeo “was standing with a ridiculous look on his face.” She said that implied, “Don’t panic.”

She then heard the voice of a woman and saw a woman, with a rasta hairstyle, on the left of the B15’s fender, on the ground.

The woman, she said, kept telling her, “Officer, is not we allyuh want. Is Shumba James, He was in the car in front and it gone.” James had swapped cars after meeting two other childhood friends while the group was bar hopping before deciding to go to Barrackpore for barbecue, he said in his testimony at the trial.

In giving his evidence-in-chief, James said as the car he was in was passing the officers, he heard someone, supposedly one of the officers, shout, “Look the car!” before he heard a volley of explosions. It was at that point he realised the officers had opened fire on the Nissan B15.

In her deposition, Clement said she tried to help the woman she saw on the ground outside the car. She also said that one of the woman’s legs, by her ankle, was almost amputated. She said Singh told her they take them to the hospital and while she (Clement) was putting on latex gloves, the woman asked her, “Officer, allyuh going and kill meh.”

Sahadeo, she said, was bent over the front passenger seat of the B15 and had a pistol dangling from his hand.

She put it in the glove box of one of the police vehicles and it was then she said she observed a man in a bluish-green coverall. The man, she said did not appear to have any injuries nor did the woman other than her leg almost being amputated.

The man, who was handcuffed, and the woman with the leg injury were put in one of the police vehicles while the motionless driver was put in the trunk.

While on the M2 Ring Road, Clement said Riviero received a call and told her, “The corpy say to finish them.”

“Kill them,” she said when asked by Peterson what she took that to mean. The “corpy,” she said, was Sahadeo.

The two police vehicles drove into a gravel road off the M2 Ring Road. She said she was asked for the firearm they retrived on the scene and one of the latex gloves she had on. She stayed in the vehicle and was “very scared," and minutes later, she heard gunshots.

She saw the man and woman lying on the roadway. The woman appeared motionless but the man was breathing heavily. They were again put in the trunk while Rivero put the pistol in the man’s hand and fired off the weapon, she said.

She also said when she was asked to shine a torchlight so they could take off the man’s handcuffs, she saw blood on the road.

Clement will return on Tuesday as the trial continues.

The six police officers are represented by Senior Counsel Israel Khan, Ulric Skerritt and Arissa Maharaj.

Also appearing for the State are Elaine Greene, Giselle Ferguson-Heller and Katiesha Ambrose-Persadsingh.