2011 drug store owner’s murder…. Jury to deliberate today

Oct 29, 2015 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

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Justice Navindra Singh is expected to sum up the evidence in the trial of Orvin Roberts, who is indicted for the murder of 84-year -old drug store owner, Harold Rachpaul.

Following the summing up of evidence by the Judge today, the case will be handed over to the jury for deliberations.
Rachpaul was found gagged, strangled and bound with an electrical cord in his apartment located behind his business, Rachpaul’s Drug Store, on Robb Street, Georgetown.
The incident occurred some time between August 18 and August 19, 2011, during the course of a burglary.
Roberts, a minibus conductor, of ‘C’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown, is currently before Justice Singh and mixed jury charged with the murder.
Yesterday, Police fingerprint expert,   Assistant Superintendent of Police, Raffeik Ali, told the court that based on the analysis he conducted, the fingerprint impressions taken at the crime scene matched the prints police obtained from the accused.
Ali was then questioned by Defence Counsel, Nigel Hughes. He insisted that the prints belonged to Roberts. He told the court that the prints had undergone computer analysis as well as manual examination.    Ali explained that the computer identifies possibilities of a fingerprint match but the manual examination, can confirm it.
State Prosecutor Narissa Leander subsequently closed her case.   At this point, the accused was called upon to lead his defence. Standing in the prisoners’ dock, Roberts told the court he is innocent of the crime.
He claimed that when police arrested him last February, for a crime committed in 2011, they took two sets of fingerprints from him.  The accused told the court that he worked partially in the interior and at the time of the crime, he was probably out of the jurisdiction.
He recalled that his prints were taken by two different police ranks, who were acting on instructions from Detective Caesar.
“I was so confused and foolish at the time, I allow them to take another set of fingerprints from me, the same day,”
Roberts said that a policeman subsequently told him that his prints had matched the ones found at the crime scene at Robb Street. “I tell he that he got to be lying because I ain’t know nothing about Robb Street.”
Roberts recalled that he was thereafter charged and placed before the court. Attorneys representing both the State and the Defense thereafter submitted their closing arguments.
In his address, Attorney, Nigel Hughes urged the jury to consider the fact that there were no signs of forced entry to the building in which the elderly businessman was murdered.
Hughes noted, too, that the only persons with access to the premises were the elderly man, his son and grandson – the latter two were never considered suspects to the crime nor were they questioned by the police regarding their whereabouts on the night of the murder.
The lawyer also pointed to the likelihood that the prints from the crime scene did not match his client.    Hughes also noted that the prints presented as evidence before the court had been considerably distorted.
However, State Prosecutor Narissa Leander argued that the fingerprints found at the scene could not have belonged to any other person than the accused.   She said that the fact that Roberts’ fingerprints, matched the ones found on the inside of a safe at the crime scene, indisputably links him to the murder. She urged the jury to use their commonsense and good judgment, when reviewing evidence of the case.
At the commencement of the trial on Monday, the victim’s son, Leonard Rachpaul testified.  He told the court that a Transport (Deed of Title) was among the items stolen from the Robb Street premises. He recalled that on the night of August 18, he secured his father’s Robb Street residence and business before leaving for his place of abode.
Rachpaul said that his father instructed him to lock up the German Shepherd canine, “Jesse”, before leaving and he did so. He related that he locked up the dog, but left two smaller dogs in the yard.
The man said that he returned to the premises around 8:00 am the following day and noticed that the German Shepherd was in her kennel.
Rachpaul said that he later made the gruesome discovery of his father who was found wrapped up like a mummy with a sheet and a cord wrapped around him. The witness said though that his son was the first to enter the premises and make the discovery.
Rachpaul recalled that he was closing the gate behind him when he turned around and his son (Vincent) came back running towards him saying, come see what happen to grandfather. Rachpaul said that not only was his father bound, he had a black and blue mark to the head.

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