JURORS in the trial of five men for the murder of businessman Dr Eddie Koury on Thursday heard from a St Vincent and the Grenadines Special Branch inspector who was instrumental in the arrest of one of the accused men on that island.
Insp Junior Simmons testified to participating in the arrest of Shawn James at a Western Union Money Transfer office in Kingstown, St Vincent, on September 24, 2005.
Also there for the arrest were Trinidadian police officers, Cpl Wendell Lucas and PC Sheldon Petersen.
Simmons said James was told he was a suspect in a homicide and was taken to the central police station in Kingstown before he was put on a plane back to Trinidad.
He said James was cautioned once by himself, and several times by Lucas.
He was also told of his rights, and never said to them he would come back to TT with the police or that he’d tell them what had happened.
At the close of the trial for the day, formal admissions were tendered into evidence and read out to the jury.
They included the deposition of murdered justice of the peace Asquith Clarke, who was present when James allegedly gave a confession statement to police on September 26, 2005.
Clarke was gunned down at his home in Tunapuna on April 26, 2007, so the evidence he gave at the magisterial inquiry was read out to the jury.
James allegedly admitted to taking part in Koury’s kidnapping and beheading him and dumping his body at the Mosquito Creek in La Romaine
Koury, the managing director of ISKO Enterprises Ltd, an import and distribution company, was abducted from his office on September 21, 2005.
Two days later, his headless corpse was found in central Trinidad. His head has never been found.
The trial resumes next week Wednesday.
