Man on trial for robbery at Debe bar

A 32-YEAR-OLD La Romaine man went on trial on Friday for robbing and shooting a man and stealing another person’s car at a Debe bar four years ago. Renwick Gaskin, of Church Street, is before Justice Malcolm Holdip and a nine-member jury in the San Fernando Third Criminal Court.

Gaskin, charged with robbery with aggravation and robbery with violence, is defended by attorney Subhas Panday. Attorney in the office of the DPP, Dinanath Ramkissoon, is leading evidence that on March 27, 1999, Gaskin and a person unknown, went to Dip’s Restaurant and Bar at Siparia Erin Road, Debe. The first prosecution witness Ishwar Bholai testified that around 10.30 pm that night, he and his uncles were liming at the bar. Bholai, 38, of St John’s Road, Avocat, said he went to the counter to pay the bill when he noticed the barman had run to the back of the premises. Moments later, the witness told the court, the lights in the bar went out and two men, one on either side, were standing next to him. Bholai told the jury that one of them, “...was of slimmish to medium build, between five feet five inches to five feet eight inches tall.”  He testified that he felt a round object “like a piece of iron” pressed against his ribs then heard one of the men demand, “Where is the money? Where is the money?”

Bholai recalled feeling a hand in his left back pocket where he had $1,700 in hundred dollar bills. He said someone told him, “Take that in yuh (expletive)” then he heard a loud explosion and felt a burning sensation in his right leg. “I saw blood spraying out and running down my pants,” Bholai testified. The witness told the jury that as he and his uncles were trying to leave the bar, he fell to the ground. He recalled regaining consciousness in the Casualty Department of the San Fernando General Hospital. He remained warded for one week.
The case continues today