IAPE Evidence Blog

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BYLINE: Onika James

Arima, Trinidad

All of three exhibits taken from a 2003 mur­der scene, in Tem­ple Street, Arima, have gone miss­ing from the Arima Police Station.

The infor­ma­tion was revealed yes­ter­day dur­ing Ag Sgt Keith Mohammed’s evidence-in-chief in the Fabian La Roche mur­der trial.

The case is being heard by Jus­tice Andre Mon Desir, in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Assizes.

La Roche, of Cumuto, is alleged to have fatally stabbed 37 year-old Gary Irish “five times” in the back dur­ing the early hours of July 25, 2003.

Mohammed said, he had “pack­aged and tagged a shirt, jer­sey, and towel which were removed from the mur­der scene.” He said he placed the items in sep­a­rate brown paper bags on July 28, 2005, pre­pared rel­e­vant forms, and took the exhibits to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre for analysis.

Sgt Mohammed also claimed that, he “returned to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre on Octo­ber 11, 2004, and retrieved the items.”

Sub­se­quently, he placed the items in stor­age at the Arima Police Station’s Prop­erty Room.

How­ever, when he went to col­lect the items on Thurs­day, he was told they “could not be found.”

Under cross-examination defence attor­ney Larry Williams asked Mohammed if he “did not think it strange that the exhibits went missing?”

“This was sup­posed to be under lock and key. How is it that exhibits in a mur­der trial could just go miss­ing? Did you com­plain to any­one about the miss­ing exhibits?” Williams enquired.

“I only enquired about the exhibits yes­ter­day (Thurs­day). I have not com­plained about the mat­ter. Not as yet,” replied Mohammed.

Checks with senior offi­cers at the Arima Police Sta­tion yes­ter­day revealed that, “the prop­erty keeper who ini­tially logged the exhibits was no longer in the Police Service.”

News­day was also told that, “since the officer’s retire­ment, sev­eral offi­cers would have acted in that capac­ity, so one could not say who was respon­si­ble for the miss­ing exhibits.” Trial judge Mon Desir did not enquire or com­ment on the miss­ing exhibits.

Pauline Irish, the sis­ter of the vic­tim, also tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day. She told the court she iden­ti­fied her brother’s body at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Centre.

La Roche’s case is based on self defence.

In out­lin­ing the case yes­ter­day, State pros­e­cu­tor Sub­rina Doughdeen said, the accused told police that he “caught him (Irish) unawares, and stabbed him in the back about four or five times.”

“La Roche stabbed Irish in the upper left arm, left side of the back, (which pen­e­trated the lung), right shoul­der, mid­dle back, and left but­tocks (which pen­e­trated soft tis­sue),” Doughdeen told the panel. “Irish was rushed to hos­pi­tal but suc­cumbed to his injuries after six days.”

Fol­low­ing the victim’s death, La Roche gave a state­ment to the police. He admit­ted by his own hand that, he was at Tem­ple Street at the time of the mur­der. He said, he had gone there to ped­dle his mar­i­juana when Irish and his friends took his stash. He wrote that, he asked them to give it back but they did not. He then said, “I caught him (Irish) unawares, and stabbed him four or five times in the back.”

Addi­tion­ally Doughdeen told the jury, “you, mem­bers of the jury, are here to lis­ten to the evi­dence, and decide whether or not, La Roche was act­ing in self defence. The post-mortem report will be pre­sented to you, plus La Roche’s state­ment writ­ten by his own hand will be put before you. In this case you will hear words like stash, mar­i­juana, etc. You may have your own prej­u­dices but I ask you to leave that behind, in fair­ness to the accused.”

The case con­tin­ues on Monday.

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