Death truck driver to know fate today

“I am holding out. I have to keep courage,” a tearful Mathura Lakhan, 71, sobbed as he walked out of the San Fernando High Court yesterday when his sentencing for triple motor manslaughter was, for the third time, postponed by a High Court judge. Yesterday, trial Judge Paula Mae-Weekes did not have the benefit of the State Prison medical doctor. The judge is conducting a sentencing hearing to determine Lakhan’s medical condition before she passes sentence. Lakhan, who was found guilty on June 1, will return to court this morning. Lakhan drove a mechanically defective truck along the busy St James Street on May 24, 1999, which crashed into a maxi-taxi and two vehicles — killing three people.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but Lakhan, a heart patient at the San Fernando General Hospital, has been waiting with bated breath since June 7, to learn of his sentencing. Mae-Weekes, who sent Lakhan to his Mc Bean Village, Couva home on a bond after the guilty verdict by a nine-member jury, postponed sentencing for today. When hearing resumed yesterday morning, a worried-looking Lakhan sat in the dock and stared at Madame Justice Mae-Weekes in the San Fernando First Assize Court. The judge announced to assistant Director of Public Prosecution Roger Gaspard and Lakhan’s attorney Hayden St Clair Douglas, that due to an administrative error, the court’s subpoena did not reach the prison authorities for the medical officer to be summoned to court.

St Clair Douglas, however, called Dr Pravin Ramoutar of the SFGH, who testified that Lakhan once had a heart attack and several subsequent visits to the hospital for chest pains. Specialist heart physician, Dr Ivan Perot, also testified. Both doctors agreed that one could not predict whether Lakhan was likely to suffer another heart attack. Mae-Weekes also questioned both doctors on the witness stand about the availability of medication for a person with such heart ailment, within the public health system. The judge stood the case down for ten minutes for contact to be made with the prison doctor, but this proved futile. Hearing will continue today. Lakhan, a father of three, said as he left the courtroom: “I’m just holding on. I hope this will be over soon. I have to keep courage.”