Jurors directed in cocaine case

Anthony Perpignac of Cocorite and Lawrence Blake of Laventille are before Justice Devan Rampersad at the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court charged with possession of four kilos of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

The duo was apprehended by police on the compound of Bayside Towers apartment complex in Cocorite at about 3 pm on October 20, 2004.

The State, represented by special prosecutor Dana Seetahal SC, Cheron Raphael and Shoba Jamunar, called four witnesses who were extensively cross-examined by defence attorneys Wayne Sturge and Evans Welch.

At the close of the State’s case, Perpignac waived his right to give evidence but called one witness to give evidence on his behalf. Blake opted to take the stand, and produced bank records and a letter from a commercial bank confirming that someone conducted a transaction on his account at the Independence Square branch of RBTT around the time he was supposedly arrested at Bayside Towers.

Video footage of someone looking like him at the bank on that day and at that time was also shown to the jury.