Alibi witness not sure about date

THE ALIBI witness of murder accused Daniel Agard recalled an altercation with the accused at the Croissee in San Juan, but could not say if it was on December 11, 2001. Louis “Badang” Goodridge of San Juan, one of the defence witnesses called yesterday morning by Agard’s attorney Mario Merritt, said he had seen Agard and Ainka Shepherd, the mother of Goodridge’s son, walking into the bank in the Croisee around dusk on that day. He said he called out to the accused and hit him in the face and said, “That is for hitting my youth man (son).” Goodridge said Agard ran and an ATM card fell from his hand. The witness said he then left when Shepherd started cursing him. “She could real cuss,” he concluded to the amusement of the court. However, he had no recollection of exact time, day, or year the incident occurred.

Agard and Lester Pitman, both of Upper Bushe Street, Maitagual in San Juan, are before Justice Herbert Volney in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court charged with the murders of 59-year-old John Cropper, 83-year-old Maggie Lee, and 51-year-old Lynette Lithgow-Pearson. The three were found with their throats slit at their Second Avenue, Mt Anne Drive home in Cascade on December 14, 2001, three days after a party hosted at the house by Pearson. They were reportedly killed sometime between December 11 and 13. After leading the evidence of Richard Fergus, the last defence witness, Merritt closed his case at 10.10 am. In his address to the jury yesterday afternoon, Merritt contended that the evidence presented at the trial “did not support the pillar of the State’s case” against Agard, and therefore cast reasonable doubt that he could have committed the murders.
Merritt was critical of some of the salient areas on which the State had built its case.

For example, the attorney pointed out to the jury, the fight in which the accused said he was involved at the Croisee, San Juan on the evening of December 11, 2001, had not been investigated. Regarding the issue of Agard’s possession of the Croppers’ ATM card, Merritt reminded the jury that according to the Republic Bank records, that particular card was “card number three,” of which Angela Cropper had no knowledge. In her evidence on June 1, Cropper had said she only knew of two cards, hers and her husband’s. Agard’s sister, Rachel Jamie Agard, had on Tuesday testified that “Uncle John” had given her the card to “use with discretion” after she had run into financial difficulties. Merritt said Agard’s fingerprint on the jewelry box, taken from the Cropper’s residence, was insufficient evidence to determine murder, since the evidence had revealed that Agard had worked at the house in 1999, and the print could have been left then.

Blasting the evidence by the State’s main witness, Dion Jones, Merritt said Jones had every reason to lie because the stolen items had been found in his possession. In addition, Merritt said, nothing Jones had said could be verified. “Why would he (Agard) kill the golden goose?” Merritt directed at the pensive jury, referring to “Uncle John’s” kindness to the accused and his family. “He got money when Angela was not around and she was frequently out of the country,” he continued. Merritt admonished the men and women, in whose hands the fate of the accused lay, to desist from allowing their emotions to overwhelm them because three people had been gruesomely murdered. Instead, he said, “Look at the evidence objectively and maintain a standard of justice.” Defence attorney Wayne Sturge will address the jury today.