The State’s main witness in the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder trial, who claimed on Monday he never gave police a statement, changed his testimony yesterday, saying he was intimidated by police into making statements implicating the 12 accused men. Keon Gloster was grilled for several hours by lead State prosecutor Israel Khan, SC, and has now been deemed a “hostile witness” for the State. On Monday, Gloster, at the start of his testimony, denied making the statements and signing a transcript of a police interview in June 2007.
Khan spent much of yesterday’s hearing identifying individual sentences from the hand-written statement and asking Gloster to confirm or deny if he had made them to police in the interview. Gloster, who is related to all of the accused by either blood or marriage, is alleged to have seen Naipaul-Coolman being held captive at a house in Upper La Puerta, Diego Martin, for several days after she was kidnapped on December 19, 2006 from her home at Lange Park, Chaguanas.
He told police he was present when Naipaul-Coolman was killed, dismembered and her body buried. During his cross-examination, Khan was able to get Gloster to admit to providing peripheral information to homicide detectives on the names, addresses and family backgrounds of the accused men . Khan appeared to hit a brick wall when he picked out statements, which obviously incriminated the accused men.
With many of those questions, Gloster took lengthy pauses before he eventually denied making the statements. “She (the interviewer) was frightening me and telling me what to say,” Gloster repeatedly claimed. But as Khan persisted with his questioning Gloster began to periodically fold under the pressure.
Khan: Did you tell police that Madman Marlon (Marlon Trimmingham) end up cuffing she (Naipaul-Coolman) on she hand and asking she where the money girl, we ain’t kidnap you for nothing?
Gloster: Yes
Khan: Did you tell the police that while Buffy (Shervon Peters) and Raphael (Raphael Williams) was asking she for money and she was saying help, help?
Gloster: Yes. Maybe when I was frightened.
Gloster’s answers constantly contradicted each other as he accepted and denied a series of scenarios involving Naipaul-Coolman’s murder. In answer to one question, Gloster denied saying he saw the accused men cleaning a pool table where Naipaul-Coolman was allegedly killed. However, when asked if he said he saw the table placed on its side to dry, Gloster said: “I tell them (the police) that because they (the accused) did scrub down the pool table.”
As Khan continued to probe Gloster, he pleaded with presiding judge Malcolm Holdip to intervene. “Tell him to cool heself nah. I catch the fits this morning,” Gloster, who is epileptic, said. Before Holdip could address the issue, Khan said “i will cool down,” before he continued his line of questioning in a softer tone. Khan will continue his cross-examination when the trial resumes this morning.
Who’s in court
The dozen men before the jury and Justice Malcolm Holdip are: Allan “Scanny” Martin, twin brothers Shervon and Devon Peters and their older brother Anthony Dwayne Gloster,, siblings Keida and Jamille Garcia, 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 from sickle-cell anaemia.
Legal team
Their legal team includes Ulric Skerritt, Joseph Pantor, Selwyn Mohammed, Lennox Sankersingh, Ian Brooks, Wayne Sturge, Mario Merritt, Richard Valere, Colin Selvon, Vince Charles, Christian Chandler, Delicia Helwig and Alexia Romero. The prosecution team includes Senior Counsel Israel Khan and Gilbert Peterson, who are being assisted by senior state prosecutors Joy Balkaran and Kelly Thompson.