THREE (3) PORT OF SPAIN MEN WERE SET FREED AFTER BEING FOUND NOT GUILTY OF MURDER ON FRIDAY 10TH JUNE, 2022.
SEE STORY:
In 2019, two of the former accused – Kamau Farai and Devon Sookoo – were found not guilty of the murder of 51-year-ole Susan Rajcoomar, but they remained in custody accused of murdering her husband Shyam Ramdass, after the jury was unable to return a unanimous verdict.However, their co-accused, Hamid Neils, was found not guilty back then of murdering Ramdass, 52, but remained in custody for the murder of Rajcoomar.
On Friday, Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo returned not guilty verdicts on the remaining charges following a virtual judge-alone trial that began in March. The judge found that the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the men had carried out the killings. This was based on a number of inconsistencies in the evidence of the State’s main witness Johan Rajcoomar. He is the son of the murdered couple and was also shot in the head during the incident but survived the attack.
The murders took place on January 12, 2005, at Oxford Street, Port of Spain and it was the state’s evidence was that on the day in question, Johan was standing in the yard when three men confronted him and shot him. Upon hearing the gunshot, his mother came out of the house and she was shot multiple times.
In his evidence, Johan claimed that while the men were standing over his mother, he managed to run to a neighbour’s property where he hid. However, he said he was able to still see the men as they repeatedly chopped his father. That testimony was given in the Magistrates’ Court during the preliminary enquiry but was tendered into evidence at the High Court trials after Johan was gunned down in a drive by shooting at “the coco” at Upper Belmont Valley Road, Belmont, on October 19th, 2017.
