Taxi driver tells court he took victim and accused to hospital

A taxi driver yesterday testified that murder accused Justin Felix, who is charged with killing a Linden man in 2008, flagged down his vehicle and asked him help him transport a man to the MacKenzie Hospital.

Trevor Graham said that on July 13, 2008, he was working late and as he was passing a GuyOil Gas Station a man standing at the side of road, flagged him down. He said he had almost passed when the man called out his name.

Graham said he saw Felix who quickly related to him that someone had just been shot.

“I asked him where the person was and he said just at the gate,” Graham recalled, adding that he reversed his vehicle but remained in car as Felix and another man hauled someone into the trunk of his car. He said he told them that one of them needed to go with him to carry the man to the hospital. Felix went, he said.

Justin Felix
Justin Felix

Graham said it took them about 10 minutes to get to the hospital and when they arrived, he got out of his car and stood at the side as a porter lifted the “lifeless” body of man onto a trolley.

He added he was about to leave when Felix stopped him and asked for a drop. It was on their way back from the hospital, Graham said, that he asked Felix what had happened to the man.

He said the young man told him that he had heard a gunshot and when he ran out he saw his friend holding his stomach as a man jumped onto a bicycle and rode away.

“I told him to go to the station and make a report,” he said, adding that Felix stopped off a few feet away from the police station.

Graham further stated that he contacted his taxi base, and told them what had happened. He said he was told to make a report the next morning, which he said he did.

Justin Felix of Oronoque Drive, Retrieve, Linden is standing trial for the murder of Paul Austin in the High Court.

It was alleged that he murdered Austin on July 13, 2008 at the Kara Kara Bridge in McKenzie.

Last week, a police witness had testified that Felix told him that his gun accidentally went off and killed the other man.

The witness had stated that he had asked to have a private word with Felix who was detained at the Linden Police Station, and it was there that Felix told him that he wanted to tell the truth.

He said Felix disclosed that he was having an argument with Austin about “his share” of stuff that was stolen and when the man refused to give him, he reached in his bag and pulled out a gun.

He added that Felix denied pulling the trigger, stating that the gun went off on its own.

Under cross-examination, defence attorney Glen Hanoman had asked the witness why he had not taken a statement from Felix who had gone to the station to make a report about a shooting.

Hanoman stated that Felix made a report that he and Austin were together when two men came up on bicycles and one shot at Austin.

The matter is being tried before Justice Franklyn Holder. The trial continues today.