I will never forget that face

FORMER PENTAGON security officer Marie Douglin yesterday described how an armed man walked up to her, relieved her of her revolver and threatened to shoot her during an incident at the Ultra Care Pharmacy in Diego Martin in June 2000.

She recounted the incident in her testimony at the murder trial of Nigel “Yardy” Matthews, Martin Layne and Grafton “Pecos” Sorzano before Justice Herbert Volney in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court. The three are accused of murdering Mervyn Wright on June 3, 2000. A fourth man, Kerry Joseph, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Wright, 61, was shot and killed as he walked past the pharmacy on the night of the robbery. Douglin told the court she was in possession of a loaded Taurus .38 revolver when Matthews came up to her, pointed a revolver at her chest and asked her for her firearm. She told him she did not have one. He pulled open her jacket, saw the revolver and grabbed it. He then asked her for the holster.

She told the court she felt a blow to her head and fell to the floor. While she was on the floor, Matthews continued to ask her for the holster. He then told her, “You taking too long, like I have to shoot you in your foot.” She said all this time she was looking at his face. She said the men left the pharmacy together and just before she got up from the floor, she heard a gunshot at the front of the pharmacy. She said she went to the back of the pharmacy and when she returned she saw a man lying on the ground outside. Under cross-examination by defence attorney Joan Charles, Douglin said Anthony Rambaran, who she knew before, approached her and asked her if she had a firearm and she told him she did not. She said she knew he was joking because he was always making “bad jokes.”

She said he wanted to know if she had a firearm because he was concerned about her safety. She also told the court that she lied to Rambaran about her firearm because she was trained to treat everyone as a possible enemy when in possession of a firearm. Douglin told the court she was unable to see the pharmacy door from where she was standing because her view was obstructed by shelves. Douglin explained that she told the police the man who had attacked her and taken her revolver was a tall, slim Negro man. She also agreed with Charles that the description would fit a large number of people in Trinidad. However, she pointed out that the face of the man who placed the gun to her chest remains clear in her mind. She said she would “never be able to forget that face.” The trial continues on Monday.