George Bacchus murder trial resumes

Dec 02, 2008 News

Justice Claudette La Bennett yesterday handed down her ruling on the voir dire that has been ongoing for the past week in Delon ‘Fatboy’ Reynolds’s case.

Reynolds is accused of murdering self-confessed death squad informant George Bacchus, who was found dead in bed at his Princes Street home on June 24, 2004, after he had made bombshell revelations about a death squad operating in the city, for which he said he once gathered information.

For the second time, the trial reconvened before a 12-member jury in the Supreme Court yesterday, as the state called Detective Sergeant Cedric Gravesande, an investigating officer in the case, as the prosecution’s first witness.

Gravesande, currently heading the Criminal Investigations Department at the Kitty Police Station, testified that, on June 24, 2004, he was at the time stationed at the La Penitence Police Station, which received a report of murder.

According to him, he and a party of policemen went to Lot 76 Princes Street, Lodge, and upon entering the building, found an identifiable male East Indian lying in a bed. He later learnt that the man was George Bacchus.

He added that a red substance, which appeared to be blood, was on the mattress, and the man appeared to be dead.

Gravesande said he searched the body and found three wounds, one to the left side face, one to the right thigh and another to the inner aspect of his right arm — all appeared to be made from gunshots.

According to Gravesande, the scene was photographed and checked by fingerprint experts in his presence. He said they questioned several persons and subsequently escorted the body to the Lyken Funeral Parlour.

He also said that, the following day, a post mortem examination was performed by Dr. Nehaul Singh on George Bacchus’s body in his presence at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary. The doctor later gave the cause of death.

The post mortem report was tendered as evidence yesterday. There were no objections by defence counsel Peter Hugh.

The matter has been adjourned to today for continuation of cross-examination. Earlier this month, the trial into this matter was aborted because one of the jurors was related to a witness. The witness is reportedly one of the investigating officers in the case.

Funeral parlour co-owner Debra Douglas and her nephew, Fabian ‘Fabie’ Jessop, had been jointly charged with Reynolds with Bacchus’s murder, but they were subsequently freed due to insufficient evidence.