‘Skelly’ to stand trial for murder

AFTER over two hours of submissions by the prosecution and the defence team, Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls yesterday ruled that a prima facie case had been made out against the three men charged with the murder of businessman Dennis Persad-Jodhan. Sheldon “Skelly” Lovell, Shawn “Gumbo” Vincent and Brent “Small Brent” Danglade were committed to stand trial at the next sitting of the Assizes.

Persad-Jodhan was abducted outside of his Evans Street, Curepe home on December 23, 2002. His body was found five days later on an agricultural plot in Aranjuez. The defence team, former Deputy DPP Rangee Dolsingh and Patrick Godson-Phillips, insisted that the State had presented no evidence that any of the three intended to kill Persad-Jodhan. His death could be considered accidental, Dolsingh said, and argued that the most his clients could be charged with was manslaughter. “There is no direct evidence, no circumstantial evidence, no confession,” he argued. “The evidence of the star witness is unsafe and unsatisfactory. He was lying to protect himself because he was on the run,” Dolsingh continued. The witness, Joel “Footy” Phillips, had been granted immunity against the murder on December 30.

Dolsingh said Phillips was used as a scapegoat by the police to nail Lovell. “Skelly was the man they wanted,” he said. According to Dolsingh, the whole case was hinged to Phillips’ statement, which he said was manifestly destroyed during cross-examination. Legally and evidentially, he said, the case could not go past the high court and, if it did, no jury could convict the three men. Godson-Phillips too insisted that the statement given by Phillips was unreliable. “The State must not forget that the character of Joel Phillips came under close scrutiny. How can the State rely on a man of such dubious character?” he asked. The defence team, however, did not expect the carefully prepared submissions of State attorney Tricia Hudlin. Her submissions of joint enterprise and felony law were backed by copies of carefully selected case studies, which she forcefully and effectively presented to the magistrate.  According to Hudlin, the kidnapping of Persad-Jodhan “was an agreed plan that he would be taken and kept against his will.” It was therefore up to a jury, not a magistrate, to decide whether his death went beyond the scope of joint enterprise, she added.

Act 16 of the Criminal Law Act, Hudlin said, stated that when a person commits an arrestable offence and someone is killed in the course, all the persons involved in the commission of the act were liable to be convicted of murder, even if the killing was done without the intent to kill.  Lovell, Vincent and Danglade, therefore, were “culpable and liable for the murder of Dennis Jodhan” since the kidnapping offence led to his death. Following her submission, McNicolls said he was satisfied that after calling 12 witnesses, the prosecution had discharged the responsibility that it had been assigned. As he read the alibi notices to the accused, several of their family members broke into tears. The three men chose to reserve their defence. This time, Lovell made no comments and no interaction between the accused and their loved ones was allowed. The three men will re-appear at the First Court, along with Jason Joseph, Rondell Roberts, Richard “Chinee” Kirton and Brian Charles on January 23 to answer to the charge of the Persad-Jodhan’s kidnapping.