Court reserves ruling in Dr Koury murder appeal

AFTER four days of hearing submissions, three Appeal Court judges have reserved their ruling on the appeal of the five men convicted of the 2005 murder of businessman Dr Eddie Koury.

Justices of Appeal Mark Mohammed, Maria Wilson and Ronnie Boodoosingh heard final submissions from special prosecutor Wayne Rajbansie and brief replies from attorneys for the five on April 14.

Mohammed admitted the trial of the five – Shawn James, Caleb Donaldson, Jerome Murray, Terry Moore, and Robert Franklyn – which lasted a year and four months, was also possibly the longest appeal.

Initially, two days had been set aside, but two additional days were made available for attorneys to advance their 60-plus grounds of appeal in the case.

Mohammed said it should be “self-evident” that they would need time to deliberate, asking the attorneys to be mindful that the case was not their only outstanding judgment.

“We will give this matter our pressing attention. There is a lot of material and transcripts which are extensive. Be patient with us, but we will move with dispatch.”

The five were sentenced to hang after being convicted by a Port of Spain jury in December 2019.

They have complained of multiple alleged missteps by the trial judge, including failure to properly direct the jury on critical legal and evidential matters.

Their arguments focused on conflicting medical opinions on Koury’s cause of death – decapitation versus stab wounds – and said the judge did not adequately guide the jury on how this affected key legal issues such as joint enterprise and felony murder. They have also argued that the evidence supported a plan to kidnap and rob, not to kill.

Attorneys further challenged the judge’s refusal to dismiss a juror while they have also complained about the forensic evidence, DNA linking Koury’s blood to three accused, and James’ detailed confession. The men are Rajiv Persad, SC, Karunaa Bisramsingh, Shane Patience, Wayne Sturge and Danielle Rampersad, Gabriel Hernandez, and Daniel Khan.

However, Rajbansie and Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Danielle Thompson have insisted the prosecution’s case against the five could not be faulted.