State witness admits he is a gangster

Key prosecution witness Kerry Joseph admitted yesterday he was a gangster who had been granted immunity for two murders, in contrast to his brother, who is a police officer. He accepted from defence attorney Keith Scotland that he had been granted immunity in  December  2000 for his testimony in a robbery/murder in Diego Martin, and the murder of Barataria handyman Roger Alexander. Scotland suggested to Joseph that Santa Claus had come early for him that year, and that he did not need to be good for goodness’ sake. Joseph was testifying against his childhood friends Garvin Sookram aka “Bean,” John Wayne Alleyne aka “Bumbles,” Junior Sookram aka “Country,” Hassan Sanchez and Ronald Gaskin aka “Doom,” who are before Justice Rajendra Narine charged with the murder of Alexander, aka “One Arm,” on August 19, 2000 in Barataria. Joseph, 23, was with the five accused, chasing after Alexander, when he was murdered. His testimony put the five accused on the scene of the murder of Alexander, with Garvin Sookram as the triggerman, shooting Alexander four times in the back.

During cross-examination by defence attorneys Scotland and Margaret Rose, Joseph repeatedly insisted that he was telling the truth, in spite of some inconsistencies between his statements to the police and his testimony before the jury on Monday. Scotland reminded Joseph that in his statement he did not say that Sanchez was in the car when “Bean” and the others went to visit a friend at Trincity after the shooting, but in his testimony on Monday, he put Sanchez in the car. Scotland also noted that Joseph, in his statements, had described the flames coming out of “Bean’s gun as “red fire,” but in his viva voce evidence, said the flames were blue. Reflecting about why he confessed to the police about Alexander’s murder, Joseph said he saw an innocent man die and that was on his conscience. Scotland, however, observed that Joseph’s conscience only kicked in after he was arrested by the police, two days after the killing.

Joseph said the police did not tell him why he was being arrested until ten hours after his arrest. During that time, he said, he was handcuffed. In response to several questions about things he said before the jury, but which were not in his statements, he affirmed that he had told Sgt David Abraham those things, but did not know why they were not in his statements. Garvin Sookram is being defended by Pamela Elder SC and Owen Hinds Jr; John Wayne  Alleyne by Charles and Elvis O’Connor; Junior Sookram by Sean Cazabon and Dawn Mohan; Hassan Sanchez by Keith Scotland and Michelle Solomon, and Ronald Gaskin by Margaret Rose and Richard Mason. Hearing continues today.