Ex-Coast Guard ranks murder trial …. Miner who alerted cops testifies

Jun 12, 2013 News

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By Latoya Giles

A witness who the prosecution says was the first to alert the police that something was not right with Bartica gold dealer Dweive Kant Ramdass took to the witness box yesterday.
Gold miner Kerwin Chance explained to the court that he had called Ramdass twice after leaving him at the Parika Stelling to head back to Bartica. According to the man, it was on the third attempt to contact Ramdass that the phone went to voicemail and he was unable to get onto him.
Chance told the court that it was a normal routine, somewhat of a security measure for him to call Ramdass so “regularly” once he had handed over monies to him. The witness further told the court that after the phone went to voicemail, he became concerned. Chance said that he had returned to the city and dropped off a quantity of gold and notified his boss that he was not getting onto Ramdass.
Chance further explained that he was feeling very concerned and headed back to Parika. While doing so, Chance said that he was at the Demerara Harbour Bridge when he received a phone call from Ramdass’ brother, Steve Persaud.
Chance said that the man’s sibling spoke briefly to him and he continued to head to Parika. The witness said that when he arrived at Parika for the second time he saw two men whom he knew as “Gavin” and “Tucker”, one of whom was a former coast guard rank.
Chance explained that he met the two men between the Stelling and the Bartica Police Station, where Tucker told him “something”. The witness said that he again felt some concern, which prompted him to make contact with the Coast Guard office. Chance told the court that he had gotten the number for the office from one of the men who goes by the name of “Gavin”.
After making the call, the witness said he was told “something” and he became even more concerned about Ramdass. This he said prompted him along with one Paul Eastman to go to the first koker to arrange a boat.
While arranging the boat, Chance said he got another phone call from “Tucker”, and he immediately went back to the Parika junction. After he arrived back at the junction, the witness said he saw two men who were fully dressed in their coast guard uniform. He explained that the men were heading towards the Stelling, which is close to the police station. Chance said that he was not far from the men so he shouted to them, insisting that they wait.
According to the witness, the two men who were dressed in their uniform told him something. Chance said that he quickly invited the two men into the police station. Prosecutor Judith Mursalin questioned the witness about whether he would be able to identify the men he saw. Chance said he was positive and proceeded to identify the number one accused Sherwin Harte and number three accused, Deon Greenidge.
During that time, the witness said that he was totally unaware of their names, and it was only when they were in the police station he had heard their names.
The witness further stated that while they were in the police station he asked the two men what they had done with Ramdass.
“I asked them what they do with de li’l boy called ‘buck man’ and they told me that he paid them $12,000 to take him to Bonasika,” Chance told the court. However the man said he confronted them and said that he did not believe that the victim went there since he does not live there.
Chance said that while in the station, Harte instructed Greenidge that he shouldn’t speak and let him do all the talking.
The court was further told that Harte subsequently got a phone call on his mobile, and went outside the police station, he spent approximately five minutes outside and came back into the station. The man stated that he and Harte had a heated exchange which almost ended in a fight. He told the court that the argument was about Ramdass and the money.
Chance further stated that he told the female police sergeant on duty that the matter was “life and death”, because he had packed some seventeen million dollars in a box and gave Ramdass, and he heard that the coast guard ranks took him with them.
Chance went on to say that he was still inside of the station when he got a phone call, and passed on the information to the police sergeant. He said the sergeant instructed one of her ranks to go outside. The man said that he saw the rank come back with the number two accused, Devon Gordon, and a female who had two bags in her hands. The witness said it was the female sergeant who called the woman around the counter with the two bags and asked what she had inside of them. The sergeant, the witness said, instructed the woman to open the bags. At this point when the woman opened the bags the sergeant was shocked by the sight and shouted “watch money this girl got in this bag”.
The sergeant, the witness said, began to question the woman as to where she got the money from and she responded that she had gotten it from her brother who was a coast guard.
Chance said he did not know the woman’s name who had the bags, but could identify her once he saw her. The witness said he continued to tell the police sergeant that the money was packed in $500,000 parcels. The man said that the sergeant called him and showed him the money, and it was packed in the exact way. He said that there was $7.2 million in the bag which the woman was carrying.
Chance said that he informed his boss, Ashim  Baksh. He said that his boss along with the victim’s brother came and they hired a boat. Chance recounted that they “run the water top” looking for Ramdass but did not locate him, this was 22:15hrs.
The witness said that the search lasted for about three to four hours.
Chance noted that the last time he saw Ramdass’s body was when it was in a zipped bag.  At this point, prosecutor Mursalin attempted to seek the court’s admission to show a photo to the witness. However the defendants’ lawyer Ms. Latchmie Rahamant, objected to this, stating that they did not know the origin of the photo, nor who developed it. The lawyer further stated that the Evidence Act, does not provide for this cause.
The prosecutor made several case citations, but the judge ruled against the picture being shown. Under cross examination by defence counsel, the witness was questioned about several aspects of his statement. According to the lawyer, the witness was trying to embellish his evidence which he gave yesterday compared to what he said in the magistrate’s court.
The issue of his timing with regard to him travelling from one part of Georgetown to collect the money and taking it to Parika was wrong, the lawyer said. She suggested to him, that it was “rush hour” and that he had taken longer, something which Chance denied. He explained that he did not take long since everything was waiting for him.
The witness explained that he had left Station Street, Kitty, and went to Mohamed’s Enterprise to uplift the money which was already packed. He said he uplifted $20 million and went to Church Street, then to Parika.
The lawyer also brought up yesterday that it was the first time that the witness had stated that the victim was wearing “shades”. The witness said he could not recall that aspect of his evidence and the lawyer made an application for him to be shown his deposition. When shown the deposition, there was no record that he had stated that the victim was wearing a “shades”.
The lawyer told Chance that he was making a deliberate attempt to alter certain aspects of his testimony, which the witness again denied. The witness was then posed with the question about him telling the court that the coast guard ranks said that they had taken Ramdass to Bonasika. At this point the witness was again shown his deposition, where he read out the part about the ranks saying that they were paid $12,000 by the victim, but there was no mention about them taking the man to “Bonasika”.
The other aspect of the witness’s testimony which the lawyer questioned was how Chance identified the money. The witness had stated that he identified the money by how it was packed in $500,000 parcels. However the lawyer suggested that anyone could pack money in $500,000 parcels. This notion by the lawyer was not accepted by the witness, who maintained that one has to have “skills” adding that not everyone could see money and pack it, you could get “confused”. He admitted that the only means of him identifying the money was how it was packed. Under cross examination the witness maintained that he did not need to cross reference the money, because he was certain that the money was part of it.
However Rahamat suggested to the witness that he was telling a “fairytale story” to the court and that he was fabricating it.
The three accused – Sherwin Harte, Delon Gordon, and Deon Greenidge -are charged with the August 2009 murder of Dwieve Kant Ramdass, which took place at Caiman Hole, East Bank Essequibo.
The ex-army ranks were manning a Coast Guard RC 12 motor boat in the Essequibo River, when they allegedly confronted Ramdass in a boat at the Parika Stelling. They allegedly forced him into their boat and took him to another location in the river where they relieved him of $17M in cash, which he was carrying in a box to Bartica for his employer, who operated a gold and diamond business in the city.

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