‘The man still living, come and stab him’

A COURT heard details yesterday of the betrayal and murder of Clint Huggins by his cousins and friend for $3 million. The plot was hatched between Leslie Huggins and his uncle Joey Ramiah, less that a year before Clint Huggins was killed.

According to prosecution witness Swarsatee Maharaj, Leslie promised to kill his own cousin because Joey said Clint had collected money not to testify against Dole Chadee, but still went ahead and did so. Because of this,  Leslie said, Clint deserved to die.  He vowed to kill him and collect the $3 million. On February 20, 1996, a Carnival Tuesday, Leslie made good on that threat. He, together with his cousin Arnold Huggins and friend Junior “Heads” Phillip, murdered Clint Huggins on the Uriah Butler Highway, Mt Hope.

According to the detailed testimony of 25-year-old Maharaj, the former common-law wife of Leslie, Clint was shot twice, knocked down with the car, stabbed several times and beaten on the head. He was then placed in the back seat of the vehicle and it was set ablaze. Maharaj was testifying before Justice Alice Yorke- Soo Hon in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court where the trio is on trial for the murder. They are being represented by Ian Stuart Brook, Keith Scotland and Dawn Mohan, Osbourne Charles SC and Christlyn Moore. Prosecutors are Wayne Rajbansee and Natasha George.

 Maharaj said she, the three accused, Simon Ragoonanan and Clint were on their way to Port-of-Spain from Sangre Grande, in two cars, a Lancer and a Laurel. On reaching the Uriah Butler Highway, the cars stopped. Arnold came out from the Lancer with a gun in his hand and went to the Laurel. Clint, who was drunk in the back seat of the Laurel, came out the other side. Arnold pointed the gun at Clint and fired over the hood, hitting Clint in the head. Clint staggered, leaned into the window of the Laurel where Leslie was sitting in the driver’s seat and said: “You know what you doing boy? Forget this and let us go back home.” But this time Ragoonanan, who was driving the Lancer,  drove off and made a U-turn and came back on the opposite side of the road to where the Laurel was parked. A second shot rang out and Maharaj saw Clint running towards the Lancer with something like blood on his jersey. Leslie drove the Laurel across the median and bounced Clint with the car into a chain-link fence.

Phillip and Arnold ran towards the Laurel. Leslie came out the car and the three of them lifted Clint from in front of the Laurel and placed him in the back seat, but only Clint’s leg remained in the car and the upper body was outside on the ground. Leslie told Ragoonanan: “The man still living, come and stab him.” Leslie also told Phillip and Arnold to stab Clint. Leslie had a black handle fishing knife in his hand and he stabbed Clint in the upper region of his chest about eight times.  Leslie then returned to the Lancer and said: “ The man dead now.” Arnold took out the “music” from the Laurel and set the vehicle ablaze to make it look like a robbery. The gang then drove off at high speed back to Sangre Grande. On the way Leslie and Phillip threw their jerseys and sneakers out the window.  Back at home they also dumped their jeans in the latrine.

Clint, who was a  State witness against Chadee and his gang for murder, was being kept in a safe house at Teteron Barracks but he frequently ran away from the safe house and visited his cousin and others in Sangre Grande. Joey Ramiah, who knew of Clint’s frequent visits, suggested to Leslie to kill Clint. He said Chadee will pay him $3 million. Leslie’s plan was to do the job and bury the money in his back yard. However, when Clint made his Carnival Sunday surprise visit, Leslie had no gun so he had to find one. He and Ragoonanan discussed the matter and  recalled that Arnold, who lives at Matura, had a gun. It was decided that Leslie would visit Arnold. Clint, Maharaj and a man called “Sharky” were doing a lot of “partying.”. On Carnival Monday night while they were in Sangre Grande, Arnold was supposed to shoot Clint in the crowd but things did not go according to plan. 

Maharaj told the jury that she and Leslie walked to Market Street where she saw Arnold standing alone between two vegetable stalls. “Leslie told me that Arnold was going to shoot Clint in the crowd tonight,” she said.  Shortly after Phillip told Leslie:”It cannot be done tonight, there is too much people.” Maharaj understood that to mean they could not kill Clint. Back at Leslie’s Mulchan Road home, after killing Clint, the gang concocted a story to tell the police. They were to say that Clint borrowed the Laurel to buy a packet of cigarettes and never returned. To make that story more believable, Leslie ordered Maharaj to call Clint on his pager and leave a message inquiring about the whereabouts of the car. Maharaj said Leslie told her that she had to stick to that story otherwise he would kill her just like he killed Clint. She said she did as she was told because she knew what Leslie was capable of doing.

Brook, who represents Arnold, was the first attorney to cross-examine Maharaj yesterday. He wanted to know among other things why she did not warn Clint that Leslie wanted to kill him. Her reply was that they were cousins and she was afraid Clint would have told Leslie and harm could have come to her. She was also afraid of trying to dissuade Leslie from killing Clint for the same reason.