Attorney found guilty

He will be sentenced on June 13. Melville was represented by attorneys Ravi Rajcoomar, Larry Williams and Radeyah Ali.

Anju Bhola prosecuted.

It was Melville’s second trial. He was first convicted in March 2004 and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for his role in Cox’s kidnapping and attempted murder.

He successfully challenged this conviction in the appeal court and a retrial was ordered.

Another man, Hilton Winchester was also convicted in 2004 and was jailed for ten years.

He lost his appeal. The State’s case was that Melville Jason Holder, Ainsley “Beetle” Alleyne and Winchester, to kill Cox on June 28, 2001, after he found out she had reported him to police after he cashed in two insurance policies on behalf of a client and failed to pay the money to that client.

Melville hired the hitmen at a cost of $40,000 and told them it had to be a ‘skilful operation’ and that Cox must not, “Rise back up again.” This was part of the testimony of one of the three men whose evidence was read to the jury at the trial which took place in the Port of Spain Fourth Criminal Court.

During her testimony, Cox said the men took her up to Fort George and then up to Cumberland hill and one of them said he was paid $1,000 to kill her. She offered to pay him $20,000 to spare her life.

Realising she was going to be killed, Cox flung herself off the steep hillside and down a precipice. She was eventually held and bought back partially up the hill where Holder squeezed her neck until she became unconscious.

When she revived, Cox begged her kidnappers to spare her life and eventually managed to escape by jumping off precipice a second time