Seetahal’s family holds vigil outside courthouse

“It’s three years now that Dana was stolen from us. We as a family feel that loss so excruciatingly everyday although three years have passed, I can tell you it is no easier now than when it happened,” Seetahal’s sister Susan Francois said yesterday.

Francois, her brother Omar and daughter Danielle, along with friends, including Senior Counsel Sophia Chote, held a small vigil outside the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday, where 11 men charged with Seetahal’s murder appeared minutes earlier.

The small group also handed out yellow roses to motorists along St Vincent Street.

“She meant so much to us. She was sister, best friend, confidant.

We just wanted the public to know that this great woman, that we are so proud to call our sister, should be remembered. We are doing our part to ensure that what she did for everyone, not just for the country but all the personal touches she would have made,” Francois said.

Francois said family members were attending all the court hearings and “continue to expect and hope for justice.” “I’m sure eventually it would come whether man made or otherwise,” Francois said.

Yesterday’s hearing before Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno was adjourned shortly after it began as one of the men, Stephan Cummings, did not have a lawyer.

His said he could no longer afford to pay his previous attorney and applied for one through the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.

Another attorney appointed by the LAAA last week turned down the brief so another has to be appointed for Cummings.

Seetahal was shot dead behind the wheel of her SUV while driving along Hamilton Holder Street, Woodbrook, on May 4, 2014. She was returning home after a spending the night at the Ma Pau casino on Arapita Avenue.

A little over a year later, Rajaee Ali, his brothers Ishmael and Hamid Ali, Devaughn Cummings, Ricardo Stewart, Earl Richards, Stephan Cummings, Kevin Parkinson, Leston Gonzales, Roget Boucher, and Gareth Wiseman were charged with her murder