Two brothers have gone on trial for beating their neighbour to death with a stool during a brawl in a bar in Arouca.
Ryan Powder, 33, and his 30-year-old brother Sherwin, both of Windy Hill, Arouca, are before Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor in the Port-of-Spain Sixth Criminal Court charged with murdering 18-year-old Ryan Samuel on September 15, 2006.
Testifying at the start of the trial yesterday was Errol Forde, a patron at the bar who claimed to have witnessed the incident.
Forde told the 12-member jury that shortly after midnight, he and a group of friends went to La Luna Bar, Eastern Main Road, in Arouca. Forde said as he waited outside for a friend who went to withdraw cash from an ATM, he saw two men dragging another from inside the bar.
He said one man restrained Samuel, while the other beat him over the head with a bottle.
“When they start beating the man with a stool I get kinda vex. I make an advance but my partner hold me back,” Forde said.
He said that the beating lasted more than ten minutes and he and his friends decided to leave before it was over.
An unconscious Samuel was taken to the Arima District Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries several days later.
Forde admitted that he was unable to point out the suspects in an initial identification parade. However, in a subsequent exercise he identified Sherwin as the suspect who restrained Samuel.
In her opening address, State prosecutor Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal stated that she would lead evidence to show that Ryan Powder confessed to the crime.
“He disrespect my girl so I beat him real bad,” Ryan allegedly told police after he was arrested.
As she cross-examined Forde, Sherwin’s lawyer Michelle Solomon-Baksh questioned his memory of the incident as she alleged that he was drunk at the time.
“You were tight and your head was nice,” Solomon-Baksh said as she pointed to the fact that Forde’s friend drove his car on the night of the incident.
Forde firmly denied the claim as he stated that he had only consumed one beer earlier that evening. He also said that he chose not to drive because he did not know the area they were liming in.
Ryan is being represented by Mario Merritt, Vince Charles and Alexia Romero.
Forde’s cross-examination will continue when the trial resumes this morning.