Witness admits: I told a few lies

SWARSATEE MAHARAJ, main witness against three men accused of killing Clint Huggins, vowed yesterday to seek God’s forgiveness for not warning Clint about the danger to his life. She admitted that she made moral mistakes but insisted she did not do anything criminally wrong regarding the death of Clint. She also agreed that she had told a few lies.

Maharaj said she broke off her common law relationship with accused Leslie Huggins sometime in September 1996 when she found him in a pub “wining up” on a woman called Sasha.  She said there was a “cuss-off” and she threw a hammer at him with which missed and shattered the glass in Arnold Huggins’ car. Maharaj also admitted that sometime before they left for Uriah Butler Highway where Clint was murdered, she had another “cuss-off”  with Leslie because she found him “wining up” on another woman called Helen on the streets of Sangre Grande on Carnival Monday night in 1996. These were some of Maharaj’s response to questions put to her by defence attorneys Osbourne Charles SC and Keith Scotland. Leslie, Arnold and Junior Phillip are before Justice Alice York Soo-Hon in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court, charged with the February 20, 1996, murder of Clint Huggins.  The case is being prosecuted by Wayne Rajbansie and Natasha George.

The court heard that Maharaj gave the police a total of four statements on Clint’s murder, between February 1996 and September 2000. Each contained additional information. Maharaj’s  first statement on Ash Wednesday — February 21, 1996, was concocted by Leslie and the other accused. Maharaj said Leslie threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate. However, she said, while in protective custody she felt more comfortable and decided to add further details to her statement. After giving her second statement on November 11, 1999, Maharaj was placed in protective custody. She then gave a third statement on December 22, 1999 and the fourth on November 27, 2000.

The jury also heard that after the preliminary inquiries started on September 20, 2000, Maharaj read that (former Deputy DPP) Anthony Carmona was prosecuting and went to see him. After her conversation with Carmona, she went to Homicide Bureau and gave a full statement with additional details that were not in the other statements. Maharaj repeatedly stated that she had not discussed immunity with anyone, not even Carmona,  but was given immunity from criminal prosecution after she gave her full statement to the police on September 27, 2000.  The following day, she started her testimony before the Chief Magistrate in the preliminary inquiry. Scotland ended his cross-examination yesterday and Charles started putting his questions to the witness. He will continue today when hearing resumes.