At the murder trial yesterday of Eustace Griffith, police investigators told the court that he had confessed to stabbing Stabroek Market handyman Steven Arthur, stating that during a fight Arthur first pierced him with an icepick and he in turn stabbed him.
Among the nine witnesses who testified were two persons who said that it was Griffith who stabbed the deceased, Arthur, but their stories varied when grilled under cross-examination, as they admitted that they were not paying attention to what had transpired at the time Arthur was said to have been stabbed.
Police Inspector Rodwell Sarabo and Detective Corporal Rawle Bacchus both corroborated each other’s evidence that after the allegation was put to him, the accused said that he had gone to Stabroek Market to purchase ground provision when he encountered Arthur.
According to the lawmen, Griffith told them that while at the market he saw Arthur smoking and he (Griffith) enquired why he was watching him.
The police officers said that Griffith then related to them that Arthur pelted him with banana peel at which point they began fighting during which Arthur stabbed him with an icepick and he in-turn stabbed him.
The Inspector said the accused told him that he had stabbed Arthur with a knife which he threw away in the vicinity of Demico House. Sarabo said that the area was searched, but nothing was found.
Both Sarabo and Bacchus said that Griffith refused to sign the statement he had provided.
Defence attorney Maxwell Mc Kay suggested to the officers under cross-examination that the reason his client refused to sign the statement was because they had not written down the entirety of the story he narrated to them.
The officers in their respective testimonies, however, disagreed with counsel’s suggestion.
Mc Kay enquired from Sarabo if the accused had not told him that Arthur tried to rob him; but the Inspector answered in the negative.
Mc Kay had also questioned the officers as to why an identification (ID) parade was not conducted for the presumed eyewitnesses to have identified the accused since it had been revealed that they had not previously known Griffith nor were they in any way acquainted with him.
For his part, Bacchus said that he was not the investigating rank.
Posed the same question, however, Inspector Sarabo said he did not think that an ID parade was necessary for several reasons.
He said that after the incident, the accused himself ran to the Brickdam Police Station and stated on his arrival that he ran there because he was being chased by a crowd.
Sarabo said, too, that the two witnesses who said they saw Griffith stab Arthur also arrived at the station shortly after and pointed out Griffith who was sitting on a bench, as the person who had stabbed Arthur.
The Inspector said, too, that he thought the witnesses would have had enough time at the scene to observe the accused and so in all the circumstance he thought the identification made was sufficient and there was therefore no need for an ID parade.
Purported eyewitnesses Vidish Persaud and Bhopaul Gopaul—ground provision sellers—each said in their evidence-in-chief that it was Griffith who had stabbed Arthur.
When pressed under cross-examination, however, both agreed that while they heard the two men arguing and engrossed in an altercation, they were paying attention to selling their customers and did not see at the material time when Arthur fell to the ground, how, or by whom his injuries were inflicted.
Persaud said he just saw from the point when Griffith jumped on his stall with a knife in his hand and was running away. Gopaul’s story was similar, stating that he only saw from the point Griffith rushed past him with a knife with persons in pursuit shouting “hold he.”
Mc Kay had pointed out to each witness that based on their stories Griffith would have been backing them and therefore they would have been unable to see his face. While Persaud answered in the affirmative, Gopaul said that as persons chased after the accused shouting “hold he,” Griffith at that point turned around and he was able to see his face.
Persaud had said that he was able to observe Griffith’s face for some three minutes, but Mc Kay challenged him on this, pointing out that if Griffith had just run past him at a “reasonable” speed in a short distance as he had said, then he (Persaud) could not have made that observation for that length of time. Persaud would later concur with the attorney.
Gopaul, however, said that he had only observed the face of the accused for seconds.
Also testifying yesterday was former Police Constable Terry Cummings who recalled taking possession of the clothing Griffith wore at the time of the alleged murder which he said had suspected blood stains.
Cummings said he had questioned the accused as to how his clothing came to be so stained and about a wound he had on his right middle finger and he related that he had a fight with a man at the market. Cummings said that the pieces of clothing were handed over to the analyst for testing.
Meanwhile, in his testimony, the Analyst, Assistant Superintendent Ray Mercurius said that he had tested the clothing and it was positive for “human blood.”
Asked by Mc Kay, the analyst, contrary to what Sarabo had indicated, said that back in 2016, the Guyana Police Force’s forensic laboratory did have the capability to do blood-type match, but that in this particular case, the quantity of blood sample needed was not enough for conducting such a test and so all he was able to determine, was that the clothing did have human blood.
Noting that it was he who had instructed Cummings to prepare the analyst form for the items to be tested; Mc Kay had enquired from Sarabo whether he had instructed his junior to request a “blood-type match.”
It was in response to this question that the Inspector said that the Force did not at that time have the capability of testing for DNA and blood-type.
Both the judge and Mc Kay, however, pointed out that DNA was different from a blood-type match.
Sarabo, however, said that all the Force was able to do back then was to determine whether a sample submitted was human blood.The trial which is being heard at the High Court in Georgetown continues at 9 this morning before Justice Navindra Singh.
The accused is attending virtually from the Lusignan Prison.
A number of witnesses testified virtually yesterday and Mc Kay also appeared virtually.
Griffith is accused of murdering Arthur on the morning of July 4th, 2016 at Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
