JP confirms statement was taken by cop

Investigating officer in the Cascade Triple Murder Trial, Sgt Wayne Dick, yesterday saw his evidence confirmed when another witness took the stand. Giving evidence was Justice of the Peace Mottley De Peaza, who testified that he witnessed the recording of the statement given by accused number two, Lester Pitman. Led in evidence by State prosecutor George Busby, the Justice of the Peace testified that on Wednesday December 19, 2001, he was introduced to the then suspect, Lester Pitman, at the Homicide Bureau in Port-of-Spain. De Peaza explained that Sgt Dick told the accused in his presence that the JP was here to witness the statement Pitman wanted to give in relation to the three murders which took place at Cascade on December 13, 2001.

The JP said he asked Sgt Dick and WPC Pauline Phillips, who was also present, to leave the cubicle in which the suspect was sitting. When the two officers left, De Peaza said he asked Pitman whether it was true that he wanted to give a statement in relation to the murders to which Pitman answered, “Yes.” De Peaza said he also asked Pitman whether the statement he wanted to give was a voluntary one and the accused again said, “Yes.” The JP said after asking several other questions, he then asked the accused whether he had been beaten or threatened, had promises made to him or inducements offered to him, to which Pitman replied, “No.” The JP said at that time, after asking the accused whether he was ready to give a statement, he told the court that the accused said he was not in a fit state of mind to give a statement.

Some time later that afternoon, however, the accused told the JP he was ready to proceed. During cross-examination by Pitman’s attorney Wayne Sturge, Justice Herbert Volney chastised the attorney for referring to his client’s statement as a “flimsy document” while questioning the witness. Sturge had earlier said, while questioning De Peaza, that the “the only thing incriminating his client was this flimsy document,” holding Pitman’s statement in the air. An agitated Volney stopped the attorney immediately and asked that he desist from that line of questioning. “You are out of place to say so, Mr Sturge. How dare you refer to it as flimsy? How dare you throw so much contempt for all that has been happening in this court?” Volney said. Twenty-five-year old Lester Pitman and 21-year-old Daniel Agard are on trial for the murders of Lynette Lichglow-Pearson, 51, John Cropper, 59, and Canadian resident Maggie Lee, 83. The matter is proceeding in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court. Hearing resumes today.