Couva man freed of killing woman in car

After deliberating for one hour and five minutes, the nine-member panel returned not guilty verdicts to the manslaughter and dangerous driving charges against David "Hurricane" Sultan.

Sultan, of Orange Grove, Couva, was on trial for the offences before Justice Anthony Carmona at the Port-of-Spain Assizes.

According to the evidence led by State attorneys Nalini Singh and Marissa Gomez, Sultan was giving Dhanmatie Moonasar and three of her friends — Serena Mahabir, Parbatie Ramkaran and Lutchmin John — a lift to Chaguanas. Moonasar and Ramkaran were in the front passenger seat.

As Sultan was about to turn on to the Chaguanas Main Road after exiting the Solomon Hochoy Highway, he ended up on the westbound lane where he faced oncoming traffic.

He crashed into three cars before knocking down a chennette tree and crashing through a gate and into the porch of a house.

All the occupants of the car, except Moonasar, survived. A post-mortem report revealed that she died as a result of a severed brain stem.

In his defence, the acquitted man said after picking up the women, one of them asked him to take them to Kelly Village, and offered him $40, but he refused.

As he turned off the highway to head into Chaguanas, one of the women in the front seat grabbed at the steering wheel. He said he attempted to turn left when he got to the end of the lay-by, which intersected with the Chaguanas Main Road.

The woman, Sultan said, insisted that he should go straight across the main road and back onto the highway, and grabbed at the steering wheel again.

He recalled another vehicle crashing into the right back door of his hatchback Laser, and his face hitting the steering wheel.

He said he felt something like a flame in his head and he could not remember what happened next.

After being told that he was free to go, Sultan was embraced by emotional relatives before he left the courtroom.

Sultan was represented by attorneys Dr Charles Seepersad, Mark Seepersad and Gerald Ramdeen.