Murder accused: I wasn’t there

MURDER accused Ryan Ramsaroop told police he was at a crusade on the evening that Ramesh Maragh, whom he is accused of murdering, was fatally shot in a Mayaro beach house. In fact, Ramsaroop stated that it was several days after the murder when he learned that a man had been shot in Mayaro. This was revealed in court as Ramsaroop’s statement which he had given to police was read to the jury hearing Ramsaroop’s murder trial in the San Fernando Second Criminal Assizes. Ramsaroop, aka “Papa,” is before Justice Alice Yorke Soo Hon in the San Fernando Second Criminal Assizes for murdering Maragh on Friday April 14, 2000. Maragh, 39, of Silver Mill Street, San Juan was spending the weekend with relatives at Moonan’s Guest House in Beaumont Road, Mayaro, when it is alleged that Ramsaroop, together with another man, armed themselves with a gun and a cutlass and robbed the household. During the attack, Maragh was shot in his head and died instantly.

In the statement, Ramsaroop said on the evening the murder occurred, he was liming with his friends in Mayaro, and had attended a crusade that was going on in the area. Ramsaroop told police that the next morning, he met his friend Tony, who gave him a cellular telephone “to hold for him.” “I went home and hide the phone in my box. Tony said Dog (another friend) gave it to him,” Ramsaroop stated. The following day (Sunday) Ramsaroop gave Tony the cell phone, and he (Tony) threw it down a latrine pit because it was not working. On Monday, Ramsaroop again met Tony, who gave him a few chains. Ramsaroop said he took the chains home. Several weeks after, on May 4, 2000, the police took Ramsaroop to the San Fernando Police Station for questioning and later searched the premises of Ramsaroop’s relatives at Lewis and Sucre Street in Mayaro.

Ramsaroop’s statement was entered into evidence during the testimony of Homicide Inspector Fitzgerald George, who testified that he retrieved a cell phone from a latrine pit, which Ramsaroop admitted he had thrown in the pit. Under cross-examination from Ramsaroop’s attorney Subhas Panday, Inspector George was unable to explain how two cutlasses allegedly seized during the murder investigation went missing from the Mayaro Police Station. Inspector George said that an investigation was being carried out into the cutlasses’ disappearance. “Either they were misplaced or stolen,” the witness told the court. The senior policeman was the last witness to testify for the prosecution. Justice Soo Hon dismissed the jury until Monday for legal arguments to be heard by the court.