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A man from Biche went on trial for chopping a neighbour at a wedding reception over a decade ago.
Steven “Powers” Samaroo, of Plum Mitan, Biche, became the first person to benefit from the Judiciary’s vacation court initiative when his trial started before Justice Gillian Lucky and a nine-member jury in the Port-of-Spain High Court last Friday.
Bisham Ramoutar testified that he was at the wedding reception in the community when Samaroo, who was also a guest, alleged attacked a friend over an unpaid debt. Ramoutar intervened and was chopped on his wrist on August 7, 2005.
When the trial resumed before Lucky yesterday, PC Durant Nieves, the police officer who eventually arrested Samaroo, took to the witness stand.
Nieves, who was assigned to the Biche Police Station, claimed that he was posted at the wedding by his supervisor.
He said around 3.10 am he saw a group of men fighting outside. When he went to investigate he found the crowd surrounding two men who were lying on the road.
As he tended to Ramoutar, who had a chop wound to his wrist, Samaroo, who was still armed with a cutlass, ran away.
While taking Ramoutar to the hospital, Nieves said he and his colleagues noticed a group of villagers attacking Samaroo. They fled the scene as they saw the police vehicle.
Samaroo attempted to run away through some bushes but was eventually apprehended by Nieves, who retrieved the cutlass.
Nieves claimed that when he arrested Samaroo, he (Samaroo) was dressed only in his underwear and had injuries to shoulders and legs.
“Boss, I eh chop nobody. I had to run for my life,” Samaroo reportedly told Nieves.
While being cross-examined by Samaroo’s lawyer Fulton Wilson, Nieves was quizzed over alleged inconsistencies between his evidence at the preliminary inquiry in the case and at the trial.
The inconsistencies related to his version of events over the fight between the two men and Samaroo’s arrest.
However, the issues were clarified during re-examination with prosecutor Joy Balkaran, who asked that Nieves be allowed to review his records relating to the investigation.
The trial is expected to continue today and be completed by the end of the week.
The vacation court initiative is one of several new projects implemented by the Judiciary in an attempt to clear the backlog of cases affecting the criminal justice system.
As part of the project, judges in the Criminal Division have earmarked cases, which have been awaiting trial for long periods, to be heard and determined.
It only relates to trials for non-capital offences, as they can be completed within days or weeks during the court’s annual vacation, which started this month and ends in mid-September.
The Judiciary has also launched a fast-track court system where the cases of people, who wish to plead guilty or have maximum sentence indications (MSIs), expedited. That project, which has attracted interest from over 100 remand prisoners, is expected to come up for case management in October.