Moments after stealing an undisclosed sum of money and goods from a supermarket, a burglar fell 20-feet through the galvanise roof of the business place while making his escape.

The unidentified man was discovered lying dead in a pool of blood inside Fong’s Supermarket, Gooding Village, San Fernando, around 8 am yesterday by Joanne Khadoo, an employee, who went to open the business. Police believe the man fell late Friday night and was left to die by his accomplices who could not get him out of the building. Investigators said the burglars gained entry by removing two galvanise sheets from the roof of the building. A ladder was also used by the intruders to enter and exit the building. A glass door leading to the grocery, which is in an enclosed area, was shattered.

It is believed that while the burglars were making their escape, the unidentified man fell through the roof, and landed on his head. Clad in a green jersey, blue pants and brown boots, the deceased had no form of identification in his possession. Police believe the man, of dark complexion, may have been about 25 years old. His height was estimated at five feet, seven inches. When the police arrived on the scene yesterday the body was lying on its side, directly under one of the holes in the roof. Police found several items including deodorants, cigarettes, after shaves, chewing gum, body lotions and other toiletries scattered about the ground. A torn brown bag was also found close to the body. Several items were also found in the burglar’s pants pockets and crotch area.

Investigators said the intruders also broke into a Play Whe outlet in the building and defecated on the ground. Around 11.20 pm, on Friday night, investigators said, the supermarket’s alarm went off and security officers of the Sentinel Company responded. However on arrival, the officers saw nothing suspicious and left. Visiting the scene was a party of officers from the San Fernando CID, headed by ASP Jammot, including Sgt Bellingy, Cpl Balbosa, PCS Julien and Santlal. Investigations are continuing.

A 21-year-old man was ambushed and hacked to death after the four tyres of his van were punctured outside a bar in Rio Claro, yesterday.

Roger Loubon, a market vendor, of Poole Trace, Rio Claro, was chopped at least seven times about his head, chest, back, and shoulder, and died while being treated at the Mayaro District Hospital. One of Loubon’s ears was partially severed during the attack. Police have since detained two suspects, aged 16 and 19, and are searching for three others, in connection with the murder. Investigators believe that the incident stemmed from an on-going feud between the deceased and a group of men in the village. Loubon’s friend, Joseph Alexander, 29, who was also attacked and chopped on his head, said that he and the deceased had gone to Home Turf Bar, at Guaya-guayare Road, in Loubon’s van, to “lime.” He said when they came out of the bar, Loubon observed that his tyres were punctured.

A man, he recalled, walked up to Loubon and accused him (Loubon) of owing him money and they engaged in a heated argument. The police eventually intervened and told Loubon to go home. Loubon, Alexan-der, and another man and three girls left the bar and started walking down the road, towards their home. About a mile and a quarter away, Alex-ander said, three men, armed with cutlasses emerged from the bushes and surrounded them. He said when he saw one of the men in front of him he turned around and was chopped on his head. “He (cutlass man) say if I trying to save my friend.” Alexander said he picked up a few stones and started pelting his attacker, who started chasing him. “He (cutlass man) joined the two other fellas who were fighting with my friend (Loubon). I see when he (Loubon) fall on the ground and they keep chopping him and he was bawling.”

Eventually, Lou-bon, he said, got up and ran to a neighbour’s house. E-999 officers who responded shortly after rush-ed the semi-conscious man to the hospital where he died shortly after. Alexander said he recognised two of the suspects from the bar earlier. When Sunday Newsday visited Lou-bon’s home yesterday his distraught mother Christina Charles, 42, said someone told her that her son had been chopped and when she arrived on the scene she saw him in a pool of blood. “He told  me who chopped him and that he was going to die,” she added. Charles said Lou-bon and the men who attacked him were always “at each other’s throats.” She said Loubon, lived at Chaguanas with his girlfriend Reshma Seepersad, but had been staying by her (Charles) for two months now. ASP Maharaj and Insp George are continuing investigations.

To date the Health Ministry has received nine reports of patients at public health facilities displaying “respiratory symptoms” but no Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) said Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health, Dr Rampersad Parasram, yesterday.

There are over 6,000 SARS cases in 29 countries around the world and over 470 deaths reported. At a media briefing two weeks ago the Ministry had investigated six cases reported in the media as suspected SARS but none of them fit the criteria for suspected or probable SARS although they displayed cough and fever. Since then, three more persons were presented with cough and cold, “pneumonia like symptoms.” One was at Port-of-Spain General Hospital, another at San Fernando General Hospital and the third at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

A major criteria in determining whether someone is a probable or suspected SARS case is travel to one of the countries which has SARS and or close contact with someone who has been to these areas. Dr Parasram said “none was exposed to anyone with SARS, none of them is regarded as a suspected case of SARS.” According to information about the epidemiology of the disease from the World Health Organisation SARS is linked to an atypical pneumonia outbreak in China’s Guandong province which began last November. Further spread was linked to a visitor from Guandong who stayed at a hotel in Hong Kong during late February whilst ill. The disease spreading in Hong Kong to Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Ireland and United States and Germany was linked to the index case.  Symptomatic cases are highly infectious with respiratory symptoms and chest X-ray changes. Incubation period in most cases is two to ten days (although a case of up to 13 days was reported). SARS is spread through respiratory droplet and contact.

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning was optimistic of progress being made today in Antigua on regional political unity and an arrangement for Trinidad and Tobago to supply  Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Jamaica.

Speaking with reporters following the swearing-in of former NFM chairman Christine Sahadeo as a junior finance minister at President’s House, Manning said today’s meeting forms part of the work of a five-member prime ministerial sub-committee formed during the 14th Inter-Sessional Caricom Heads of Government summit held earlier this year in Port-of-Spain to deal with “issues of governance in the Caribbean” and this sub-committee is chaired by St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves. Recalling discussions between himself and Gonsalves on the issue of regional political integration and a possible political union between this country and St Vincent, the Prime Minister stated: “All that is on the table.” Manning said Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson is another member of the Caricom sub-committee and he will take the opportunity to continue discussions with Patterson about shipping LNG from the Atlantic LNG (ALNG) plant in Point Fortin to Jamaica.

He was optimistic that his talks with the Jamaican PM would “set the stage for advance in those negotiations and discussions.” Prime Minister Manning told a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall last Thursday that the supply of LNG to Jamaica was not contingent on the construction of ALNG’s fourth Train and Government was optimistic that Train Four would become a reality in the near future. Asked whether he had already selected which of his three junior finance ministers would eventually replace him as Finance Minister, Manning replied: “Prime Ministers do not operate in that way. Everybody is given an equal chance and at the end of the day,when decisions have to be made, you make the best decision in accordance with your best judgment.”  Noting that today is Mother’s Day, Manning said his wife, Education Minister Hazel Manning, will be accompanying him to Antigua. “I didn’t think I could properly leave her home on such a day,” he said with a smile. Observing that many mothers in Trinidad and Tobago today assume the role of  “mother and father,” the Prime Minister extended Mother’s Day greetings to the national community.

The National Chutney Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago (NCFTT) has dubbed as “draconian” the Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) for bringing an injunction to stop artistes performing their songs at the recently scheduled semi-finals of the National Chutney Monarch Competition.

In a statement yesterday, NCFTT said: “This action by COTT has caused the NCFTT and its members to suggest that all artistes who would like to participate in any events/shows/competitions can be faced with similar draconian actions by COTT”. The NCFTT also complained it had not yet received a promised subvention from the Government. Meanwhile Rene Coryat, vice president of the Trinidad and Tobago Copyright Organisation (TTCO) which like the NCFTT is also headed by Vijay Ramlal, clarified that the call for Chutney Monarch Competition artistes to resign from COTT had not come from TTCO but from the NCFTT. He said that any artiste wishing to sever its links to COTT could use the TTCO’s attorneys, headed by Gillian Lucky, for free up until Wednesday.

DESPITE being a private person at heart, Christine Sahadeo says the importance of making a positive contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago caused her to accept Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s offer to join his Cabinet.

Speaking with the media following her swearing-in at President’s House yesterday, the new Junior Finance Minister said:  “To be totally honest, it was a difficult decision to make because I treasure being a private person very much. However I served at community level quite a lot. “I have been asked for quite some time if I would serve at national level and I decided to do it because I believe it is important to give back to society. I think I have gained a lot all my life. I am very fortunate to have a family, four children and a good job and I have decided that I would accept the challenge.”

Minister Sahadeo stated that she felt “honoured and privileged” to have the opportunity to serve Trinidad and Tobago and was looking forward to it. Asked about her objectives and goals as a minister, Sahadeo said her experience in the private sector taught her the importance of good corporate governance in the efficient operations of any organisation and hoped to put that experience to good use in her new portfolio. “I think good corporate governance dictates that organisations are well run,” the Minister stated. She described her appointment as a surprising but greatly appreciated Mother’s Day present.

NEWLY-APPOINTED Junior Finance Minister Christine Sahadeo will relieve her colleague Ken Valley of his State Enterprises portfolio and their fellow junior minister Conrad Enill can also expect changes to be made to his portfolio.

This was the revelation made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, minutes after Sahadeo was sworn in by President George Maxwell Richards yesterday. Speaking with reporters at President’s House, the Prime Minister said he was very pleased to welcome Sahadeo to his Cabinet and observed that she had “a very distinguished career” in the private sector and was coming from one of the top managerial positions in the Neal and Massy organisation. “She has chosen to come into public life of the country consistent with our determination to subscribe to the highest standards and the best people that can be available to us, we bring into the life of the country, expecting that will have an impact on the way that we perform and the way we are able to discharge the responsibilities that have been entrusted to us by the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Manning said.

Valley will now be responsible for long range planning and projects within the Ministry and the Central Tenders Board while Enill will deal with “core finance functions. We are trying also to reduce the span of responsibilities of each minister, so that the workload is not too heavy for any one of them. As it now stands, Mr Enill’s workload is far too heavy. If the workload of the Minister is too heavy, then the Minister is not able to get into the nitty gritty of the Ministry. The fundamental transformation or work that has to be done suffers as a consequence. It is easy to go into a Ministry and play politics. You give the impression that you are doing fundamental work when you are not and the Ministry of Finance has been the subject of that for far too long,” the Prime Minister stated.

Permanent Secretaries Sonia Noel and Kamal Mankee will assist Sahadeo and Valley respectively while Enill, given his heavier workload, will be provided with two permanent secretaries. Manning said the size of his Cabinet, with the addition of Sahadeo, now stood at 25 ministers and “it is an optimum size.  I come to my conclusion on the basis of experience,” he added.  The Prime Minister declined to reveal when he would announce the date for Local Government Elections, saying the Fourth Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Report to clear the way for those polls was approved by Parliament last Friday and an Order will be laid in Parliament on May 21. “All is well,” he grinned.

Noting that Sahadeo’s appointment coincided with his personal milestone of 32 years as a Member of Parliament, Manning remarked: “I think it is a very significant day.” The Prime Minister said he had nothing to add to Health Minister Colm Imbert’s declaration that the PNM would keep a hawk’s eye on the EBC. “ I have nothing further to say, except to say that comment was made from our experiences, particularly 2000 and 2001,” Manning said. Asked if he was now satisfied about the operations of the EBC, the Prime Minister replied that he preferred to “reserve comment” on that issue.

Clint Huggins was undoubtedly the most sensational State witness of the last 30 years. He was even more high profile than the colourful Parmessar, the man whose testimony sent notorious killers Abdul Malik and Stanley Abbott to their deaths at the end of a hangman’s rope in the 1970s.

Huggins was a key witness in another era, a time of drug criminals and chilling mass murders by ruthless gangs. His was the era of men such as Dole Chadee, feared as the “boss” and with good reason for Chadee allowed no one to stand in his way. Huggins’ fate was sealed when he became one of two key witnesses whose testimony would send Chadee and eight of his henchmen to the gallows in 1999. But as Christ once said, those who live by the sword die by the sword, and Huggins met his end in a gruesome killing orchestrated by Chadee. For the last nine years the name Clint Huggins has been in the news. On Thursday of last week the final chapter in the saga was put to rest — three men including two of his cousins were sentenced to death for his murder.
Who was Clint Huggins?

Clint Huggins was a Special Reserve Policeman attached to the Sangre Grande Police Station in the early 1990s. But while he wore the police uniform with pride sitting in the charge-room and taking reports, there was a dark side to this man. He was a member of the Dole Chadee gang. Dole Chadee, the police knew, was heavily involved in trafficking cocaine and killings, more sophisticated and cunning than what is taking place today in areas such as Laventille. There were other policemen on Chadee’s payroll which allowed the gang to flourish for years. But there was something about Huggins that attracted the attention of Senior Superintendent Mervyn Ghatt, Head of the Homicide Bureau. He targeted Huggins for information about the murder of four members of the Baboolal family of Williamsville who were gunned down mafia style on January 10, 1994.

The Williamsville killings bore the stamp of a ruthless boss and the police believed it was no one else but Chadee. But, such fear surrounded Chadee that the police kept encountering a solid wall of silence. With nowhere else to turn, Ghatt moved on Huggins and finally in May 1994 Huggins broke his silence and gave the police some vital information. This led to a massive weekend round-up of the Chadee gang and the last weekend of freedom that they would have. It was not the first time that Chadee had been charged with murder. In fact, he had faced three murder charges but on each occasion had been acquitted because the witnesses were killed. This time the police decided to take no chances and the main State witness — Clint Huggins — was placed in protective custody at the Regiment Barracks at Teteron where, surrounded by top security, it was thought that Huggins would be safe.

In the meantime, Chadee and nine members of his gang were committed to stand trial for the Williamsville murders. The country was preparing for the biggest murder trial of all time. Chadee, of course, was not without resources and used everything legal to delay the trial, including filing a constitutional motion and claiming that the pre-trial publicity would prevent him getting a fair trial. When that failed, a plan was hatched to get rid of Huggins. A soldier, Lance Corporal Eric Williams was approached. He had easy access to Huggins in the safe house at Teteron and it would be easy for him to poison Huggins. Chadee, however, picked the wrong man because Williams immediately informed his seniors about the plan. A sting operation was put in place by the authorities to trap the would-be killer of Huggins and it became the infamous hoax of 1995, in which the media was unwittingly used by the National Security Ministry and the police to fool the would-be killers into believing that Huggins had indeed been poisoned and that their plan had succeeded.

I remember well that morning when Superintendent Phillip Browne, the then Head of the Homicide Bureau rang me to say that Huggins was dead, that he had been poisoned and that the post-mortem was about to start at the Forensic Sciences Centre. I was startled and wondered how this could have happened in a safe house. I proceeded to the Forensic Sciences Centre where I saw Huggins’ father, Neville Huggins, emerge from inside the building, having duly identified the “body”. He was in tears and being comforted by soldiers but he was quickly led away before I could ask a question. Forensic Pathologist Dr Ramnath Chandulal, who was always the easiest man to contact, was suddenly unavailable when I tried to reach him to find out about the “post-mortem”.

That evening the next act in what was a staged drama — except we didn’t know it at the time — was going down in the Brian Lara Promenade. There, the police carried out a sting operation and arrested suspects who had in their possession one million dollars, that was the payment for poisoning Huggins.  Their plan, having been achieved, the police were now going to come clean with the media. The following day, the then Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Ralph Brown and former Commissioner of Police Jules Bernard held a joint news conference at Defence Force Headquar-ters to say that they had fooled the media so that they could capture the person behind the poison plot. Clint Huggins was very much alive. And while reporters were being briefed by Brown, editors had been summoned by the National Security Minister Russell Huggins who admitted the hoax, insisting that the end had justified the means.

Three suspects were arrested on the Brian Lara Promenade and charged with conspiracy to kill a State witness but only two, Felicia Constantine, 29, of Valencia, and Ronald Williams, 25, a regiment private were found guilty. The third was acquitted. On Tuesday, February 14, 1996, I received a call from someone identifying himself as Clint Huggins. He was frustrated, he said, at the confinement of the State house. He complained that he was not getting what he had been promised. He wanted to talk so I agreed to meet him at the Regiment post in Chaguaramas. He came walking with cell phone in hand and we drove to the Shoppes Of Maraval where, for the next 45 minutes, we discussed Chadee and the gang. I informed him that I could not report his story because of the pending court trial but I promised him that one day I would get the chance. Huggins was a very frightened man. Although he was in protective custody he was still afraid of the “boss”. “Imagine Mr Chadee paid one million to poison me. I couldn’t believe it. No one since I was around dared to stand up to him,” Huggins said.

Huggins knew what he was talking about. He had been recruited by Joey Ramiah, Chadee’s chief lieutenant and had been involved with the gang in several jobs including the murder of the Williamsville family. Why did he get involved in this gang, I asked? “I wanted money,” he said. “I had a young wife and we were planning to have children. I never planned to be a full-time member of the gang, but once you get involved you could not leave alive. It was either you stayed or you were left like ‘Mice’ Baboolal.” Huggins said the killings increased all the time. He was part of the gang for two years before the Baboolal murders. Huggins continued, “To tell you how brutal that man Chadee was, he killed his own family, Wally Chadee. There was some dispute over money and cocaine and just so Wally get killed and the man did not even have a heart boy.” Wally was shot and killed in Piparo on September 11, 1993.

Huggins said when the gang received Chadee’s instructions to kill ‘Mice’ Baboolal, he never anticipated that the entire Baboolal family would be killed. “I hear Joey with that talk when we reach in the house. I felt so sick I just wanted to get it over with. That bloodshed really affected me and that is why I decided to talk,” Huggins said. After the interview, I dropped Huggins off in St James not knowing that it would be the last time I would see him alive. On February 20, 1996, Huggins’ body was found hanging out of a car on the Uriah Butler Highway, Mt Hope. According to police reports, he had been shot, stabbed and his body partially burnt. But who would believe the story after the great hoax. The public needed hard evidence. A photograph showing his body battered, shot and burnt was handed exclusively to Newsday.

This time Clint Huggins was really dead and here was the evidence. Newsday obliged by printing the photograph, of course the entire front page much to the envy of media competitors. He really had been killed this time. He had run away from the safe house to enjoy Carnival and the alcohol spoke when he was seen at a bar in Sangre Grande. He was lured away from the bar and brutally murdered. Chadee had put out a $3M bounty on Huggins’ head, but before Huggins was killed he had given evidence in the preliminary inquiry of the Williamsville murder and his deposition was admitted into evidence at the trial. Chadee and his gang were tried and convicted through Huggins’ evidence and the evidence of another gang member Levi Morris, who had also participated in the Williamsville murder but had turned State witness.

In September 1996, Chadee and the gang were convicted and sentenced to death being eventually hanged in batches of three on June 4, 5 and 6 of 1999. But before Chadee’s execution, the men who were killing for Chadee, realising that no money was forthcoming for the jobs that they had done, kidnapped Chadee’s brother Thackoor Boodram on December 20, 1997 and demanded a $5M ransom. Their demands were ignored and Thackoor’s head was found in a whiskey box at the Caroni cremation site. The rest of his body was never found. Ten men, including some members of the Chadee gang, were convicted and sentenced to death for Thackoor’s murder. After years of investigation, the police finally charged three persons for Huggins’ death, his cousins Leslie and Arnold Huggins and Junior “Heads” Phillip. A fourth man was wanted but he fled to Canada. Canada is not prepared to execute that suspect unless TT give an undertaking that the death penalty will not be carried out on him. After weeks of trial, Madame Justice Alice Soo Hon passed the death sentence on the three on Thursday last after they were found guilty by a jury. It was the final chapter in the story of Clint Huggins, a policeman turned gang-member and killer, a man who died twice.

TWO British female tourists who were among the first batch of  passengers on the new Virgin Atlantic flight direct from England to Trinidad and Tobago, have praised Blanchisseuse police for arresting and charging a Venezuelan-born bandit, who on Thursday robbed the tourists in La Fillette.

At a specially convened sitting of the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on Friday afternoon, the 23-year-old accused pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery and was ordered to reappear in court next Tuesday when he will be sentenced. According to police reports, around 1.30 pm last Thursday, British tourists Nikki Crisp, 24, and Jemma Harding, 25, were sun-bathing at Mitchell Bay, La Fillette, when the man walked up to th?5, snatched their handbags and fled along the beach. The victims reported the incident to Blanchisseuse police and Constables Solomon and Seecharran began investigations. The officers later questioned several villagers and around 3.45 pm, went to the suspect’s Water Reserve Road, La Fillette home.

Confronted by the police, the suspect confessed to the crime and took the officers to a lonely part of the beach where the victims’ handbags, which still contained their personal belongings, were retrieved. On Friday morning, Crisp and Harding went to Blanchisseuse Police Station where they positively identified the suspect and also their belongings. The man was subsequently charged by PC Solomon. Because both women are scheduled to fly out early tomorrow morning for their homeland, there was a specially convened sitting of the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on Friday afternoon. The suspect appeared before Magistrate David Harris and pleaded guilty. The magistrate subsequently ordered police to carry out a background check on the accused to see if he has a criminal record and/or any matters pending before the courts. Magistrate Harris then remanded the accused into custody and ordered him to return to court on Tuesday, when he will face sentencing.

A 39-YEAR-OLD man will appear before an Arima magistrate tomorrow charged with buggering his 11-year-old neighbour on Friday night.

According to reports, around 7.30 pm, the accused went to his neighbour’s home and asked the victim’s mother if her son could come across to help with some odd jobs. The woman agreed and sent her son over. After half an hour had passed, the woman decided to check on why her son was taking so long to return home. She went to her neighbour’s home,  and she found the house locked up. As she started calling her son’s name, her neighbour, who lives alone, came outside and said the youngster was watching television and he would send him home in a while.

The suspicious woman peered through a window and saw her son pulling up his pants. When he came outside and met his mother, the youth said the man pulled down his pants and had sex with him. The woman quickly took her son home and telephoned the police. Officers arrived shortly and arrested the man, who was taken to the San Rafael Police Station where he was questioned. The victim was taken to a medical facility where the District Medical Officer (DMO) medically examined him and confirmed to police that the victim had been sexually assaulted. The man was subsequently charged by PC Hernandez with buggery and grievous sexual assault.