Fingerprint expert testifies

A FINGERPRINT impression was recovered from the bottom of a metal money pan found in a desk at Isko Enterprises Ltd, and a blood sample was taken from the floor of the business place in Macoya by a police crime scene expert.

Cpl Victor Lewis, a police fingerprint expert, who is now on pre-retirement leave, said he also collected bullet casings and metal projectiles both in the office and in the carpark. He also tested the casings and projectiles but no workable prints were found on them. Those items were submitted to the Forensic Science Centre for testing as well as the blood sample.

Lewis was called as a witness instead of Summer Pablo, who was expected to continue her testimony today but could not since defence attorney Wayne Sturge was unable to begin his cross-examination of her, as he is involved in another trial.

Lewis said on September 21, 2005, he went to Isko Enteprises after he got a call from Cpl Jude Worrell. While there he was introduced to ISKO employee Myrtle McInnis and after speaking with her, he searched the carpark. There he found a bullet casing, a metal projectile and US$50 banknote on the ground.

Photographs of the area, where the three items were found, were taken by police photographer Arlene Skerritt-Marshall.

He said he also went with Worrell and McInnis to the office where he saw blood on the floor, open desk drawers and an indentation – which looked like a small hole – in the wall. He said he searched the office for anything of evidential value, including fingerprints, when he found the other bullet casing, projectile and bloody shoeprints on the floor.

Lewis was shown the photos taken by Skerritt-Marshall to point out the areas he spoke of, but when he was shown the bullet casings and projectiles, defence attorney Mario Merritt objected.

The jury was asked to leave the courtroom and when they returned, his identification of the items was abandoned and Lewis then said he developed fingerprints on a metal money pan, which he found in one of the desks in the office.

He described the process of taking a fingerprint impression and was shown the money pan, which he identified in court. He also showed where he found the fingerprint, which is allegedly that of one of the men on trial for the murder of businessman Dr Eddie Koury.

Lewis returns to court tomorrow, when the trial resumes.

Koury, the managing director of ISKO Enterprises, an import and distribution company, in the Macoya industrial estate, was abducted from his office on September 21, 2005. Two days later, his headless corpse was found in central Trinidad.

On trial before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port of Spain First Criminal Court, at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, are Shawn James, Caleb Donaldson, Jerome Murray, Terry Moore and Robert Franklyn.