Appeal Court quashes conviction

A man who was convicted and sentenced to 30 years hard labour for kidnapping and robbing a soldier, will get another chance to plead his case. The Court of Appeal yesterday ordered a retrial of Ottis Samuel, who was found guilty of kidnapping Kevin Weekes and his girlfriend on Decem-ber 26 1999, and robbing Weekes of his jewelry and sneakers. The court, comprising Jus-tices Margot Warner, Wendell Kangaloo and Alan Mendon-ca, found the trial judge failed to draw to the attention of the jury the weaknesses in the identification of Samuel in a coherent way. It also found the judge’s summing up was seriously flawed in that it failed to put Samuel’s case fairly and properly before the jury. As a result, the court al-lowed the appeal, which was argued by attorney Devan Rampersad, quashed the conviction, and ordered a retrial.

Rampersad had argued six grounds of appeal. The State was represented by special prosecutor Dana Seetahal. Samuel was sentenced to 15 years hard labour on the kidnapping charge and another 15 years on the robbery charge, which were to run concurrently. The State’s case was that Weekes and his girlfriend were waiting for transportation at Macoya Junction in Tunapuna on the Priority Bus Route about 4 am, following a Christmas night pyjama party, when a car pulled up next to them. A man, whom Weekes later identified as Samuel, came out of the car with a gun in his hand and ordered Weekes and his girlfriend into the car. There were two other persons and a driver inside the car, who had on masks. Samuel did not have on a mask, however. According to Weekes, Samuel only put on a mask when he got into the car. The vehicle proceeded east up a hill and stopped. Weekes was then made to walk about 50 metres from the car and robbed of his sneakers and jewelry.