Guerra knocks absent lawyers

Prior to the appearance of Christopher Sealey before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls for the murder of Maharaj, Deputy DPP Carla Browne-Antoine requested an adjournment to August 18 “in light of new developments.”

Given the fact that the inquiry had already started, Browne-Antoine said she needed to discuss the matter with special prosecutor Israel Khan SC. Khan is currently out of the jurisdiction and is due to return on August 17.

Sealey, also called Michael Bourne, was arrested at a house at Alfred Trace on La Canoa Hill, Lower Santa Cruz, on Tuesday morning. He had not yet retained legal counsel when he appeared before Mc Nicolls at the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

After the charge was read to him, 35-year-old Sealey was joined in the prisoners’ dock by co-accused Doreen Alexander-Durity, 40, Zion Clarke, 27, Anderson Straker, 32; soldiers Sgt Leon Nurse, Cpl Ricardo Stevenson and Private Ricardo De Four, brothers Wayne and Kenneth Pierre, Kevin Nixon and Kevon De Merieux. The 11 will reappear before Mc Nicolls on August 18.

Nurse, DeFour, De Merieux and Clarke are also due to make an appearance before Mc Nicolls on August 14 for extradition proceedings.

The US government has made a request for the four men to be extradited to the US to face charges of conspiracy to partake in hostage taking and hostage taking of Maharaj.

Attorney Theodore Guerra SC, who appears for three of the accused, complained that defence counsel for the rest of the accused seemed to have abandoned their clients because they had not been attending court for scheduled hearings.

“My shoulders are broad but I can’t carry all that load,” he said. Attorney Richard Mason subsequently indicated he would be representing Alexander-Durity.

Maharaj, 62, was kidnapped while liming at the Samaan Tree Bar in Aranjuez on April 6, 2005. His remains were found in two barrels at Grande Curacaye, Santa Cruz on January 8, 2006.