Gruesome video footage shown of murder victims’ slit throats

GRUESOME video footage shown yesterday of the slit jugular of Maggie Lee and Lynette Lichglow Pearson lying on the bathroom floor of their house at  Second Avenue, Mt Anne Drive, Cascade, as well as  John Cropper’s blood soaked body in the bathtub, caused a chilling silence to descend upon the dimly lit Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court. The bodies of Cropper, 59, Lee, 83, and  Pearson, 51, were found with their throats slit at the house on December 13, 2001.They were reportedly murdered sometime between December 11 and 13. The film, part of the evidence given by PC Nigel Stephen of the Audio Visual Unit of the Police Service, was projected on  the courtroom wall for all to see.

For 25 minutes,  everyone  in the courtroom, including Justice Herbert Volney, the jury, defence attorneys Wayne Sturge and Mario Merritt, State attorneys George Busby and Trevor Ward, and the accused Daniel Agard and Lester Pitman, were riveted to the unfolding footage. The video began with shots of the interior of the ransacked house, which showed muddy shoeprints on the floor, cupboard doors thrown open, food with flies buzzing around, cigarette butts and a Du Maurier pack on the floor.  The camera then took its audience into the bedrooms of the house, where drawers were left opened and several items, including a $100 Canadian bill, were strewn around. But nothing compared to what lay in the bathroom of the master bedroom. Close up shots showed Lee, bound and gagged, lying on her back with her slit throat gaping open and the exposed innards jutting out.   Whether the cloth used to gag her was originally red or turned red as a result of the blood emanating from the wound, was difficult to say.  Pearson was lying face down on a rug with her hands tied behind her back.  Her exposed legs were partially under a cupboard.  A close up shot of her later being placed in a body bag, revealed a large gaping wound in her throat. 

There was blood splattered all around the two women.  Cropper was slumped in the bathtub with the front of his white T-shirt drenched in blood. Another tape, containing two minutes of recorded footage of the jewel box that was removed from the premises on the day in question was also part of Stephen’s evidence. Prior to the viewing, Volney had warned the jury to “get it clear” that  what they were about to see was “evidence of the scene, and it had nothing to do with who caused the scene.” Who caused it, he said, was for the prosecution to prove. Three other witnesses had earlier given evidence.  They included PC Curtis Julien of the Port-of-Spain CID, and Cpl Radcliffe Boxhill and PC Michael Veronique of the Port-of-Spain Homicide Bureau of Investigations. When hearing resumes today, Stephen will be cross-examined by Sturge and Merritt.