State: Accused wanted businessman dead

A Diego Martin woman, charged with killing her lover, businessman Menon Hingoo, went on trial yesterday before Justice Prakash Moosai in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court. State prosecutor Nalini Singh told the jury of eight men and four women that accused Alicia Chunu had every reason to want Hingoo dead. Singh said that 14 days after Hingoo filed a lawsuit against his sweetheart claiming $98,000, his body was found floating in the waters of Carenage. Singh, assisted by prosecutor Debbie Ann Bassaw, explained to the jury that the State would be relying on circumstantial evidence to prove its case because it does not have eye-witnesses who saw Chunu kill Hingoo on May 21, 2002, at Alice Point in Chaguaramas. Chunu, 29, of Rich Plain, Diego Martin, is being represented by attorneys Sophia Chote and Nadia Astraph.

Singh told the jury they would hear from a Coast Guard officer that on May 22, 2002, while transporting prisoners to Carrera he saw the body of a man in the water and a green Mitsubishi Lancer parked at Alice Point. The body was later identified as that of Hingoo, and the car belonged to him. Chunu’s parents and Hingoo had a mortgage agreement. They owed Hingoo money and he often tried to accommodate the family when they could not pay. Sometimes he helped them raise the payment by assisting in barbecue fund-raisers. Singh said that Hingoo and Chunu were lovers. He also helped her in business by buying airline tickets for her to travel abroad to buy cell phones which she sold in Trinidad. He did not share in those profits.

However, on May 7, 2002, Hingoo took legal action against Chunu to recover $98,000. Two weeks later he was dead, Singh said.  Singh claimed that Chunu had “every reason in the world to want the man dead.” And she had the opportunity. On the day Hingoo was killed, he and Chunu rented one of the bungalows at the Cove in Chaguaramas. Later, when they were leaving, Hingoo was sick. He was vomiting and had to be helped by an employee to his car. When they left the Cove, Chunu was driving. After opening her case, Singh called her first witness, Farouk Ali, brother of the accused. He told the court that he spoke to his sister on the day of the incident and the following day she took him to the bank to make certain transactions. He said they also visited a doctor because she had injuries to her leg and feet. Hearing continues on Monday.