No bail for Trinidad cops charged with murdering three friends in 2011
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A High Court judge has denied bail to six Trinidad cops, charged with the 2011 murders of three friends.
The cops – Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, and Antonio Ramadin – had sought bail based on the landmark ruling of the Appeal Court which allows anyone on a murder charge to apply for bail.
But Justice Norton Jack Thursday denied bail to the six accused charged with murdering Alana Duncan, Kerron Eccles, and Abigail Johnson on July 22, 2011.
Duncan, 27, Eccles, 29, and 20-year-old Johnson, were driving in Duncan’s vehicle when it was stopped by police in Barrackpore, a town in southern Trinidad.
The police had said that the three men had shot at them and that led to an exchange of gunfire. One of the officer’s former colleagues, who was initially charged with the murder, has since agreed to testify against them.
In July 2013, the officers were committed to stand trial at the end of their preliminary inquiry. A date for their trial is yet to be set.
Relatives of the three friends also sued the State over their wrongful deaths and are each seeking over two million dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in compensation. The civil case is still pending.
The decision by the judge not to grant bail to the police officers, comes after eight police officers were remanded into custody on Tuesday after they appeared before a Port of Spain magistrate charged with the 2020 murders of three men in Second Caledonia, Morvant on the outskirts of the capital..
The matter was adjourned to August 16.
The officers – Sgt Joseph Solomon, 44, with 22 years’ service, Corporal Charles Budri, 55, with 34 years’ service, and Constables Sherwin Baptiste, Mark Lewis, Vaughn St Cyr, Jameel Mohammed, Colin Furlonge and Shawn Lord appeared virtually before magistrate Brian Dabideen ages ranging from 39 to 41 years with nine to 19 years service..
They were charged on Monday night with the murders of Joel Jacob, 38, Noel Diamond, 46, and Israel Moses Clinton, 27, on June 27, 2020.
