The state’s main witness in the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder trial is expected to begin his testimony next week.
Lead prosecutor Israel Khan, SC, made the announcement in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday as the state’s 52nd witness, Cpl Ronald Penny, completed his evidence.
Keon Gloster’s testimony is expected to attract intense scrutiny from defence attorneys, who over the past year have spent a considerable amount of time cross-examining less vital witnesses in the case.
Several police officers who testified since the trial began, in March last year, have been accused of intimidating Gloster into giving a series of statements over a two-month period in 2007 which led to the accused men being charged.
In December last year, homicide detective Insp Suzette Martin admitted that while in police custody Gloster, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was taken to the St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital for a mental health evaluation—adding to speculation over the quality of his highly anticipated evidence.
Gloster, who is related to several of the 12 accused men on trial and lived near to them in Upper La Puerta, Diego Martin, has claimed he was present when Naipaul-Coolman was allegedly killed at a house in the community in late December 2006.
When Gloster completes his evidence, prosecutors are expected to call a handful of senior investigators to give evidence before they close their case against the 12 men.
Naipaul-Coolman was abducted from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Chaguanas, on December 19, 2006. A $122,000 ransom was paid by her family but she was not released and her body has never been found.
The trial resumes this morning when a police officer who was part of a raid of the accused men’s homes, in which several pieces of circumstantial evidence including shovels and other digging implements were seized, is expected to testify.
Who’s in court
The 12 men before the jury and Justice Malcolm Holdip are Allan “Scanny” Martin, twin brothers Shervon and Devon Peters, siblings Keida and Jamille Garcia and their older brother Anthony Dwayne Gloster, brothers Marlon and Earl Trimmingham, Ronald Armstrong, Antonio Charles, Joel Fraser and Lyndon James. A 13th man, Raphael Williams, was charged with the crime but died in prison in 2011 of complications arising from sickle cell anaemia.