He wanted Sumairsingh dead

Former Government Min-ister Dhanraj Singh wanted Hansraj Sumairsingh dead. He hired two hitmen to do the job — Elliot Hypolite and Steve Cummings. After the hit, Hypolite wanted $60,000 from Dhanraj so that he could flee the country, but all he got was $7,000.

This was the contention of special prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel QC as he made his opening address to the jury yesterday to start the trial of Dhanraj  for the murder of Sumairsingh.
At the end of yesterday’s hearing nine witnesses had testified, including Sumairsingh’s two children, Visham and Kavita, and his wife Sandra. Dhanraj is before Justice Paula Mae Weekes charged with murdering Sumairsingh, Chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation, on a date unknown between December 28, 1999 and January 1, 2000. Cassel explained that if you are paying for a contract killing and it is carried out, you are guilty of murder as if you had done the killing with your own hands. He  told the jury that Hypolite, also called Abdullah, had received full immunity from prosecution for his part in the killing of Sumairsingh on condition he testified against Dhanraj whom he claimed had hired him. 

He revealed to the jury of seven men and five women that the evidence against Dhanraj comes substantially from the mouth of one of the killers - Hypolite, and that it was  inevitable in these cases that, distasteful as it obviously is, the contract killer will be called as a witness for the prosecution. He said it was a matter of grave concern of course that the State has to rely on such a witness, and went on to admit that Hypolite has evaded all punishment for what he has done. He said: “This of course must affect his credit. And you will be examining his evidence with the minutest care before you act upon it.” Cassel said that the motive behind the killing may never be known although it may have had something to do with the Unemployment Relief Programme. He said after Dhanraj ordered the hit on Sumairsingh, Hypolite, Cummings who was also called Chen and another man, went to Sumairsingh’s Tabaquite home on December 27, 1999 with the obvious intention to kill Sumairsingh, but were not given an opportunity.

The jury further heard that they would hear evidence how Hypolite and Chen went to Sumairsingh’s beach house on the night of December 30, 1999 and Chen shot Sumairsingh twice. They then escaped in a red  Mazda 323. While escaping, Hypolite took a cellphone he saw in the house and later  threw it over the Ortoire River bridge. The first to testify was retired police photographer Sgt Terry Alexander, who took seven photographs of Sumairsingh’s  beach house situated on Eccles Road, Grand Lagoon, Mayaro and the scene of the murder. Visham, Kavita and their stepmother Sandra,  all testified how they became worried when they did not hear from Sumairsingh after he left home on December 30, for their Mayaro beach house. The following day the trio went to the beach house in search of him. The  doors were locked and Visham had to break a padlock to open the kitchen door after peeping through a ventilation brick and seeing only the feet of his father. They found the body of Sumairsingh in a sitting position near a door in blood from wounds to his head and chest. His glasses was on the kitchen floor and there was blood on a sheet in a bedroom.

Asia Watson, a residence of Eccles Road, also testified that she was walking on the road about 8 pm on December 30, 1999,  when she heard two explosions coming from Sumairsingh’s house and then saw two men, one tall and the other short, with kerchiefs over their faces,  running from the house to a waiting red Mazda 323. She gave the number of the car to the police. The Court also heard from Cpl Kurt Jackson who was the first policeman on the scene. He said he secured the scene and contacted Sgt George from the Homicide Bureau. Terry Chaitram, a fisherman, said he found a cell phone in his boat which was anchored by the Ortoire River bridge. Chaitram gave the cellphone to Mervyn Ramkissoon, an operator with National Gas and fisherman in his spare time, to have the battery recharged. Ramkissoon made some inquires from a friend at TSTT and later returned the phone to Chaitram, who eventually handed it over to the  police. Karl Hudson-Phillips, who is leading the defence team, questioned some of the witnesses as to whether the police had called on them to identify the red car or any of the occupants  in it.  Also in the defence team are Ravi Rajcoomar, Prakash Ramadhar and Jennifer Hudson-Phillips. Cassel leads Assistant DPP Devan Rampersad and prosecutors Angelica Teelucksingh and Charon Raphael. Hearing resumes  tomorrow.