WP: Accused confessed to stabbing boss

WOMAN POLICE Elizabeth Boland yesterday testified that murder accused Herman Villareul confessed to stabbing his supervisor, Ronnie Roberts, during a struggle that occurred between them in May 2002. Boland was at the time testifying before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court, in the trial in which Villareul, 30, of La Platte Village, Maraval, is charged with murdering Roberts on May 29, 2002, at a tile factory called Interior Harmony Factory, at Pioneer Drive, Sea Lots. Roberts, the warehouse manager at Interior Harmony Factory, later died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.

In her evidence yesterday, Boland explained that she was at the Besson Street Police Station when she got a call about the incident. She left the station and went to the factory at Sea Lots, where she saw Villareul, also known as Brent, sitting in a room upstairs the building with some other work colleagues. She explained that she observed a bruise on his face. She said she asked Villareul about the incident and he told her that he had an argument with Roberts, which erupted into a fight. He further told her that during the fight he “stabbed him (Roberts) with a knife that was in my pocket, but I don’t know where I stab him.” Villareul also told her that Marlon, another employee, had hit him on his head with a tile and burst his head. Villareul then took Boland downstairs the building and indicated the spot where the fight had started and where it ended. She said that she observed blood on the steps and in the passageway leading to the steps. However, under cross-examination, she stated that the trail of blood ran from the passageway to the steps.

Boland told the court that she took Villareul to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he  received stitches to his wound.
She told the court that she was at the hospital for about 45 minutes, where she observed Roberts being attended to by the nurses and doctors. She went back to the police station and then accompanied other officers to the scene of the incident. Boland said she returned to the police station and while there, Marlon brought a blue jeans and bandana, which Roberts was wearing at the time of the incident, and a pen knife that was taken from Villareul, and gave them to her. Under cross-examination, Boland denied that she was told that Roberts was armed with a piece of wooden pallet. Villareul is being represented in the matter by Osbourne Charles SC and Ian Brooks, while the State is represented by Nalini Singh and Sati Maragh-Lalla. The matter continues today.