‘Right time to take out Clint Huggins’

WHILE Clint Huggins lay, apparently drunk, on the trunk of a car on Carnival Monday night in 1996 at Sangre Grande, his cousin Leslie Huggins suggested to Haile Selassie Amoroso that this was the right time to “take him out” Amoroso testified yesterday.

He added: “When he said that I was a bit puzzled. If he meant that, he had to be making joke.” Amoroso was the fourth state witness called yesterday to testify against Arnold Huggins, Leslie Huggins and Junior Phillip, who are before Justice Alice Yorke Soo-Hon in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court, charged with the murder of Clint Huggins on Carnival Tuesday, in 1996. Arnold is being defended by Ian Stuart Brook, Leslie by Keith Scotland and Dawn Mohan, and Phillip by Osbourne Charles SC instructed by Christlyn Moore. State prosecutors are Wayne Rajbansee and Natasha George.

When hearing resumes today, the state’s key witness, Swarsatee ‘Satee” Maharaj, Leslie’s common-law wife, is expected to testify. Amoroso told the  jury how he, Phillip,  Leslie and Leslie’s girlfriend, Satee, together with a man called Carpenter and another who goes by the names Jaffer or “Shortman,”  spent Carnival Monday night liming in Sangre Grande, drinking and eating.  He said about two o’clock Tuesday morning Leslie  suggested: “This is the right time to take him (Clint) out.”  Shortly after, he said, the others and Clint left in a Laurel motor car driven by Leslie. However, under cross-examination by Scotland and Charles, several inconsistencies unfolded  between Amoroso’s testimony yesterday and his statement to the police. Amoroso’s explanation of the inconsistencies was his repetitious statement: “I made a mistake.”

Scotland pointed out five inconsistencies between Amoroso’s oral evidence yesterday and his statement, as did Charles. Both attorneys suggested to Amoroso that there were inconsistencies in his evidence because he was never with the accused or the deceased on that night. Among his inconsistencies was that the police had taken the statement from him at Graham Street, Sangre Grande, and not at the police station as the statement said. He said he went to the station but can’t remember for what.  Further, the statement was dated March 18, 1996, a month after the killing of Clint, but Amoroso said he gave the statement on Carnival Tuesday, hours after Clint’s death. He even suggested that he made those mistakes in his statement because “certain persons”  who were taking the statement threw him “off course.”

Although Amoroso admitted that at the time he gave the statement to the police the evidence would have been fresh in his mind, he insisted that what he was now saying was the correct version of what happened. In the statement, Amoroso also said Clint was lying on the trunk of the car when Leslie suggested it was a good time to “take him out,” but yesterday he told the jury Clint was on the bonnet of the car. When the difference was pointed out to him he agreed that the trunk was the correct area. Even though it was pointed out to Amoroso that the Laurel motor car he suggested Clint and the accused had driven off in at 2 am from Sangre Grande was seen at 1.45 am crashed into a fence on the south bound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway, Mt Hope, he insisted his time was correct.

Also testifying yesterday were ASP Joey Bowlea, PC Owen Thompson and former Inspector Lloyd Williams. Thompson and Williams said they saw Clint and spoke to him in Sangre Grande on Carnival Monday. They also recalled seeing Leslie and Phillip with Clint.  Williams said he was surprised to see Clint because he knew Clint was a witness against Dole Chadee and was in protective custody at Army Headquarters, Teteron.