Verbal abuse for ex-con charged with teen’s murder

A LARGE crowd of onlookers, who who gathered outside the Siparia Magistrates’ Court, loudly jeered and cursed at an ex-convict who appeared there yesterday charged with the murder of schoolboy Elias Thomas, 17. The teen’s half naked body was found in the Oropouche Public Cemetery last week. Carlos Michael Charles, 34, of Belle Vue, South Oropouche, seemed indifferent to the verbal abuse as he was escorted handcuffed into the court building. “What you do the boy that for...yuh wicked, yuh wicked,” one man screamed as Charles walked toward the court. He appeared before Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan where the charge, laid by acting Sgt Mervyn De Peza, of Siparia CID, was read to him.

It is alleged that sometime between Wednesday and Thursday last, at Cemetery Road, Oropouche, Charles murdered Thomas. Mother of the deceased, Hafeeza Ali, along with an aunt, a sister and another relative, were in court when the matter was heard. Ali struggled to hold back the tears as her son’s name was called during the reading of the charge against Charles. During the reading of the charge, Ali, overwhelmed with grief, walked out of the courtroom. Court prosecutor Cpl Trevor Bernard said the prosecution was awaiting instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), since aspects of the autopsy carried out on Thomas’ body, were inconclusive. The matter was adjourned to February 17. Outside the court, an emotional Ali was seen in deep conversation with relatives and at one point, she shook her head, pointed skywards and broke down in tears. She was consoled and hugged by relatives.