Mocha 9-year-old rape/murder trial…Victim’s father testifies via Skype

Apr 29, 2014 News

….recounts details of frantic search for daughter
Eric Stoby, the father of nine year old Mocha, rape/murder victim, Sade Stoby, testified before the High Court yesterday.
Stoby who currently resides in the United States, testified via computer software technology, SKYPE, after Justice Navindra Singh ruled in favour of an application made by the State Prosecutor, Judith Gildharie Mursalin, to have the witness testify via an audio/video link.
Before Stoby could relate his evidence, he took an oath to be honest, in the presence of Consul General, Brentnol Evans, of the Guyana Consulate in New York.
Stoby told the court that in November 2007, he left his home at Mocha to work in the interior. The man said that he was at Iteballi, when he received a telephone call from his eldest son, following which he immediately left to return home.
Upon his arrival, Stoby said that he joined a search party of about fourteen persons and they combed the area, looking for his nine year- old daughter. He related that he did not sleep as he searched throughout the night. At round 5:00 am on November 5, 2007, Stoby claimed that he ventured across a bridge at Sixth Field, Barnwell North; it was as if he imagined his daughter’s voice calling him.
The man said he later found his daughter’s body in a drain. Her school uniform had been pulled above her head, one of her slippers, school bag and other belongings were scattered nearby.
Last week, Prosecutor Mursalin gave the court a detailed and gruesome report of how the body of a little girl, who had gone missing for three days, was discovered near a ditch a short distance from her Barnwell North, Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara home. When the child was found, the evidence suggested that she had been raped and murdered.
According to the State Prosecutor, the medical report indicated that Stoby had haemorrhaged from her head and chest.
“There was a thick black mud in her trachea, her stomach was filled with dark black mud, blood was in her vagina, her hymen was ruptured and her intestines were protruding through her anus. There was blunt trauma to her head. Government Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh revealed the cause of death to be asphyxiation due to submersion compounded by blunt trauma to head.”
After the gruesome discovery was made, the child’s alleged killers were later identified to be two teenagers, Jevon Wharton and Charles Cush, who lived in her village.
Wharton and Cush are on trial at the High Court for the rape/murder which occurred sometime between November 2 and November 5, 2007.
Wharton, now 23 years old, and his alleged accomplice Cush, 21, are being represented by Attorneys at Law Raymond Alli and George Thomas, respectively.
Under cross examination, Defence Attorney George Thomas, told the witness that earlier, during evidence given at the Magistrate’s Court he had mentioned seeing both his daughter’s slippers at the scene of the crime. However the witness maintained that he could only recall mentioning that he had seen “a half of the pair of slippers” belonging to his daughter, at the scene of the crime.
He told the court that he had given evidence in the Magistrate’s Court but he cannot recall whether he has signed his name to the statement.
However, Stoby was shown his deposition, on which he acknowledged the signature attached to it as his own. Justice Singh then asked the witness whether he accepts that is what he had told the Magistrate, before reading a portion of his evidence, aloud to the court.
“I saw a pair of yellow slippers…one was near her jersey about sixty feet from the dam and another thirty feet from where the body was… her brother and the police held unto one slipper, but a crowd gathered, before I could get the other…” ‘Do you accept that’s what you told the Magistrate?” Justice Singh asked Stoby.
Stoby paused for a few minutes, before responding, “I can’t recall… I mentioned a slipper, I can’t remember.”
When questioned with regards to Cush, the number two accused, the witness told the court that he could not recall seeing him at the time that his daughter’s body was found.
“When I see him, his skin was wet and he was with somebody… I can’t really remember.”
The lawyer then suggested to the witness that he is saying that he can’t remember seeing the number two accused because he would have to tell the court that he stripped and beat him.
The witness strongly denied this. “There are a lot of things I can’t remember, but I never beat Cush.”

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Mocha 9-year-old rape/murder trial…Victim’s father testifies via Skype

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