Husband charged with wife’s murder — to appear in court today

A 25-year-old man who filed a writ of habeas corpus on Monday for a High Court judge to determine why he was detained by the police, was later charged with the murder of his wife, 28-year-old Debbie Ann Ramdath, whose body was found 6 am on June 16 outside the Corinth Teachers College which she attended. Ryan Sagar, a fireman, appeared before Justice Allan Mendonca in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Civil Court yesterday.

His attorneys Gerald Ramdeen and Mark Seepersad had filed a writ of habeas corpus stating that Sagar was detained by police for 120 hours without being informed why he was arrested. Five hours after the writ was filed, Sagar was charged with the murder of his wife Debbie Ann,  a student at Corinth Teachers’ College in San Fernando.  Both Ramdath and Sagar lived at Diamond Village, San Fernando. An autopsy revealed that Debbie Ann was strangled and had suffered a blow to her head. She was buried at the Morne Diablo Cemetery following a funeral service at her mother’s home in Morne Diablo. Sagar attended the funeral. The writ was filed to ascertain why Sagar was detained by the police and to determine whether he was legally detained.

According to the writ Sagar had not given a written statement to the police, neither was he informed of his right to consult with an attorney of his choice. It added that prior to his seeing an attorney of his choice Sagar had been questioned by police officers on approximately ten separate occasions. However, since Sagar had been charged by the police, Justice Mendonca gave the defence leave to withdraw the application of the writ of habeas corpus. Attorney Turkessa Blades of the Attorney General’s Office represented the State at yesterday’s hearing. As a result of the withdrawn writ Sagar is due to appear this morning before a San Fernando Magistrate charged with the murder of Debbie Ann.