Attorney tells court

FOR THE second time in two weeks, attorney Wayne Sturge complained to the court that he was concerned for the life of one of his clients.

Sturge yesterday told Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls that his client Marlon Taitt had been threatened several times by other prisoners. On one of those occasions, Sturge said, the threats were made against Taitt in his (Sturge’s) presence.

He requested that Taitt be kept apart from the other prisoners. Court prosecutor Cpl Winston Dillon assured the attorney that his client would be kept away from the rest of the prison population while he was within the precincts of the court.

When Taitt, who faces a murder charge, made his first court appearance before Senior Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim at the Port-of-Spain Fourth Magistrates’ Court on May 19, Sturge expressed concern that his client would be targetted because of his association with slain gang leader Mark Guerra. Taitt, 29, of Foster Street in John John, Laventille is charged with the murder of URP foreman Anthony Mc Carthy at Plaisance Terrace, East Dry River on May 9.

Mc Carthy, 47, was gunned down as he went to buy a newspaper at East Dry River. Yesterday, Sturge asked the court that two cell phones seized at his client’s premises on the day of his arrest be returned to Taitt’s wife, if the phones were not part of the investigation. The defence attorney said he was ready to begin the matter, but Dillon informed the court that the State was not prepared because the file had not yet reached the DPP’s office.

This, however did not sit too well with the Chief Magistrate, who ordered Dillon to get his act together. “We don’t want to end up with a San Fernando situation,” he said, advising the prosecutor to bring more than two witnesses at the next hearing. The matter will be heard on June 5 and 6.