Court hears how brothers beat man for ‘disrespecting mom’

THE STATE’S main witness Kern Applewhite yesterday described how two men ganged up to beat a 69-year-old Maracas resident outside the Acono bar in Maracas St Joseph on August 26, 2001. Applewhite told the court that the two men — Dominic and Christopher Bryan — approac-hed Claude “Mice” Noreiga, and one of them hit him from behind, causing him to fall to the ground. He explained that after Mice fell to the ground, the men started to kick him in the region of his rib cage.

However, Applewhite later stated that he had assumed that one of the men hit Mice, since he fell immediately after they ran up to him. Applewhite gave this evidence before Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court in the trial in which Dominic, 17, and Christopher, 25, are charged with murdering Mice. Mice, who was reportedly beaten by the two brothers, died about two days after the beating. Applewhite testified that while standing on the verandah of the Acono Bar at Maracas St Joseph around 7.25 pm on August 26, 2001, he observed Mice walking towards the bar. A short distance from the bar, he observed Christopher and Dominic approach Mice  and one of them him hit from behind. He said Mice fell to the ground and the men started kicking him about the body.

Applewhite said he called out to the men to stop hitting Mice and Christopher responded that Mice had disrespected his (Christopher’s) mother. Christopher held on to the back of Mice’s pants and threw him onto a pile of red sand to the front of the bar. Applewhite went into the bar and informed the bar’s owner Josephine Singh what had happened, after which he called the Maracas Police Station to report the incident. Singh went outside and spoke to the brothers. They later left for home. A short time after, the boys’ father Martin went to the bar and spoke to Singh. He then went over to where Mice was lying and looked at him. The EHS ambulance arrived on the scene and took Mice to the hospital.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Theodore Guerra, Applewhite stated that he could not say that he saw either Christopher or Dominic hit Mice from behind. He also told the court that Mice used to interfere and curse everyone whenever he drank. Also testifying was Michael O’Brien, who was attached to the EHS as an EMT at the time of the incident. O’Brien, who presently works as a patient care-giver at the Queen’s Park Counselling Clinic, told the court that on arrival at the scene he saw Noreiga lying on his back in some red sand. He went over to Noreiga and performed a check from head to toe and found that Noreiga had bruises about his body, including his eyebrow and knee. He also had some abnormal swelling to the left temporal area of his head and was unresponsive in his level of consciousness. Noreiga was moved to the ambulance and strapped down since he was having uncontrollable movement on the left side of his body. He was taken to the Mt Hope Medical Sciences Complex. Under cross-examination, Guerra put it to O’Brien that he was never at Acono on August 26, 2001, and that he did not attend to anyone at Acono Bar on the day in question. O’Brien explained that the records at the EHS would prove what he had said.

The State also took evidence from Dr Rodney Ramroop, who operates as a consultant radiologist with the NWRHA. In his testimony, Dr Ramroop explained that he examined Noreiga on August 27 and found there was a defect to his left temporal lobe, which could have suggested a previous head injury. He said the injury could be up to one-year-old. The final witness called was Insp Irvin Phillip, who informed the court that he placed Dominic on an ID parade on September 1, 2001, and Applewhite had positively identified him as being involved in the August 26, 2001 incident. He also told the court that neither Dominic nor his father Martin had raised any objections to the procedures taken at the ID parade. The State was represented in the matter by Angelica Teelucksingh, while Theodore Guerra SC and Richard Mason appeared for the brothers. The matter continues today.