‘Driver in it for the money’

The promise of “big money” was what enticed Hilton Winchester to accept the job of transporting Patricia Cox to be killed, suggested senior State prosecutor Trevor Ward yesterday. Winchester is the co-accused with attorney Joseph Melville, charged with the attempted murder of  Cox, Melville’s legal secretary. Ward also pointed out several inconsistencies in Winchester’s evidence given in chief on Monday and in his testimony on February 26, before the same court. He said those inconsistencies are  “serious shifts” in Winchester’s evidence, and that is so because he is “not telling a true story to this court.” Yesterday, the defence closed its case and attorneys on both sides will make their closing addresses to the jury today. The two accused are before Justice Melville Baird in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court and a 12-member jury, facing charges which include attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, kidnapping and assaulting Cox on June 28, 2001, at Cumberland Hill, St James.

According to the State’s case, Melville had hired Winchester, Ainsley Alleyne and Jason Holder to kill Cox because Melville feared that she was talking his business to the police. Ward, assisted by prosecutor George Busby, was cross-examining Winchester yesterday, when he cited some seven inconsistencies in the accused evidence. Among those inconsistencies was that Winchester had said on Monday that Sgt Dennis Julian who recorded the statement from him, had fabricated the entire statement except for two paragraphs. But on a previous occasion, he testified that he had dictated several paragraphs in the ten-page statement told to  Julian and that some of the other things Julian had put in. On Monday, he said that he did not tell Justice of the Peace Mottley De Peza that he had given the statement voluntarily, but yesterday admitted he in fact did tell De Peza so. Not only did he admit the statement was voluntary, but also signed the statement in the presence of De Peza.

He claimed he did so because he was afraid of the police who had threatened him. At the time De Peza had questioned him about the statement there was no police in the room. Also, on a previous occasion, he testified that he had only transported Alleyne, who is also known as “Beatle,” to Port-of-Spain. But on Monday, he added that he had waited on Alleyne while Alleyne picked up his girlfriend, whom he said was Cox, and took them to Fort George. Ward noted that this was  the first time Winchester was making such a claim and suggested that the reason Winchester changed his evidence and made up such a story was because for the first time after Cox had testified she had returned to court and Winchester had seen her sitting there. Winchester admitted never seeing Alleyne with a girl before or knowing if he had a girlfriend. As Ward continued to point out the inconsistencies, Winchester exclaimed: “My brain is not a computer to hold back them things.”