Accused turns State witness

WILLIS Stanley Romero, who was held with David Donald for the murder of a taxi driver whom the two had hired to “look for girls,” is the State’s star witness against Donald in the taxi driver’s murder trial, which started yesterday. Donald, 25, went on trial in the San Fernando First Criminal Assizes before Justice Herbert Volney and a 12-member mixed jury for the murder of Ramesh Seelochan, who was found with a bullet wound to the head in a teak forest in Tabaquite. Seelochan was murdered on a date unknown between August 7 and 12, 2002. Seelochan, of  Brother’s Road, Rio Claro was found dead in the forest on August 12, 2002. His burnt car was found by police  at Saunders Trace, Cats Hill, Moruga.

State attorney Mauricea Joseph told the court when Seelochan did not return home, a search party was organised to look for him. four days after he went missing, his body was found some 500 feet inside the forest in Tabaquite. An autopsy revealed he died from a bullet wound to the head. She told the court that Donald and Romero hired Seelochan to take them to look for girls on the day he (Seelochan) went missing. According to Joseph, while in the taxi, Donald held the deceased at gunpoint and ordered him to stop the car. “Seelochan, at gunpoint, was told to go into the teak field where Donald told Romero to tie up Seelochan. Romero left the teak field and on his way out he heard gunshots,” Joseph said.

She also said the accused pointed a gun at Romero and ordered him to drive Seelochan’s car to Cat’s Hill, where Donald set the vehicle alight. The State yesterday called seven witnesses. Among those testifying were the deceased man’s two brothers and Jules Narinesingh, a close friend of the deceased. Narinesingh told the court he was leaving his garden at Brasso Venado in  Tabaquite on August 8 2002, when he saw Seelochan’s taxi parked at Brother’s Road, near a WASA sub-station inside a teak field. “I blew my horn and sent a right for him, but I observed someone else sitting in the driver’s seat. The person had on a red cap and was of African descent,” Narinesingh said. Defence attorney Ernest Koylass reserved cross-examination of the witnesses called by the State yesterday.