Jury selected, but legal submissions delay start

A 12-member jury and four alternates were yesterday empanelled for the trial of a Princes Town man charged with the murder of a Canadian couple. Roland Doorgadeen, also known as Bobby, was arraigned before Justice Melville Baird at the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court for the 1994 murders of Geoff and Sherelle Ann Barnes on the Delmarie Beach, Blanchisseuse. He pleaded not guilty. Shortly after the arraignment, the jury, comprising seven men and five women and the four female alternates, was dismissed, to return to court on Monday, when the trial is expected to begin following Baird’s ruling on legal submissions by Doorgadeen’s attorneys Ravi Rajcoomar and Prakash Ramadhar.

Those submissions will begin today and State attorneys Angelica Teelucksingh and Wayne Rajbansie are expected to respond on Wednesday. Geoff, 23 and Sherelle Ann, 22, were allegedly drugged and drowned at the remote beach sometime between May 8 and 12, 1994.  Their semi-nude, beaten bodies were found lying face down on the beach by a group of Ministry of Works employees. The newlyweds were reportedly visiting this country on a combined vacation and business trip, where Geoff, a part-time computer analyst, was expected to set up a computer system for a local business associate. Doorgadeen, 37, of Gunness Circular Drive, Princes Town, was charged with the murders on September 25, 1998, some four years after the couple was killed.