Accused wanted to kill victim for two years

MURDER accused Ronald Tiwarie had been planning to kill his sister-in-law Polly Ramnarine for over two years prior to her March 8, 2001 murder. In his evidence-in-chief at the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court yesterday, investigator Sgt Anthony Lezama said Tiwarie had confessed this plan during an interview on the evening of the fateful day. The officer said he had cautioned and informed the accused of his constitutional rights prior to the interview. According to Lezama, Tiwarie said he was at his home at Blue Basin Road, Diego Martin at around 8 am on that day when he saw Ramnarine bathing in the nearby Blue Basin pool. Tiwarie, Lezama said, recalled an incident in which Ramnarine had chopped his mother two and a half years before that day and every time he saw her (Ramnarine) he wanted to kill her.

The accused took up his cutlass, the officer said, and went to the river to “bust her throat” but she ran when she saw him approaching.  However, he caught up with her and as he held on to her, he had flashbacks of his mother lying in bed with a chop wound to her head. As Tiwarie was about to place the cutlass to her throat, the officers said, she began fighting and she held on to the cutlass.  The accused could not get the weapon away from her because she was strong. Lezama said Tiwarie threw her on the ground and told her “yuh mother ... today yuh dead.” He rolled her in the water. Ramnarine, the officer said, pleaded with the accused to spare her life.  She told him she loved him and promised to “drop the case.” Lezama said Tiwarie submerged her head and saw bubbles rising in the water and when they stopped he knew she was dead. According to Lezama, the accused then went to his home, took his wife and daughter and left.  The cutlass had been left at the riverside.

He said Tiwarie agreed to give a statement in writing and arrangements to have a Justice of the Peace witness the recording of the statement were made. However, Lezama said, Tiwarie changed his mind after he was allowed a private conversation with his wife shortly after the interview. Lezama said he observed a bandage on Tiwarie’s left ankle and a scratch on his forearm. When asked about it, he said, the accused told him the ankle had to be bandaged because of a burst varicose vein and the scratch could have been sustained during his struggle with the deceased in the river. According to Lezama, later that day he and other officers accompanied the accused (Tiwarie) to his  home where he (Lezama) took possession of the blue short pants the accused said he had been wearing during the struggle. Lezama said Tiwarie agreed to give him a sample of his hair but refused to give a blood sample. Tiwarie was examined by a doctor on March 9, Lezama said. Lezama’s evidence corroborated with earlier evidence given by Acting Insp Godson Andrews of the Rio Claro police station. The hearing resumes today.