Verdict looms for accused in 2012 Anna Catherina triple murder

Oct 09, 2019 News

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The trial of Abishai Caesar who is accused of the September 21, 2012 murders of businesswoman Jennifer Persaud and her two young sons is expected to conclude on Friday with trial Judge Brassington Reynolds giving a summation of the evidence before handing the case over to the jury for deliberation on a verdict.

As the trial winds down, closing arguments were presented to the jury yesterday by State Prosecutor Lisa Cave and Maxwell McKay, Caesar’s lawyer.
Caesar has since pleaded not guilty to murdering Persaud and her sons, Afridi Bacchus, 6, and Jadon Ernest, 17 months. During the trial, Prosecutor Cave called several witnesses to testify including Zoey Phillips, a former lover of Caesar, who has been described as the star witness. Several police ranks were also called to the stand as well as the businesswoman’s father.
Police Sergeant Detective Khrisnadat Singh recounted taking a caution statement from Caesar on April 23, 2016 while he was in custody at the Leonora Police Station, West Coast Demerara. That same caution statement was tendered and admitted into evidence and later read aloud by Sergeant Singh.

In the statement, Caesar told Sergeant Singh that some of what Zoey (Phillips), said is truth and the rest were lies.
According to Sergeant Singh, Caesar told him that Zoey saw him with a knife and some money and he told her that he killed Persaud and her two sons. But, according to the police witness, the murder accused later said that he did not kill the family. In fact, Sergeant Singh recounted that the murder accused told him that on the night of the killing, he was at home with Zoey when “Spanish Man” called and asked him if Persaud was at home.
The police witness said that Caesar told him that he told “Spanish Man” that Persaud was at home and then he went outside and saw another man. Sergeant Singh said that the murder accused told him that about an hour later “Spanish Man” gave him $3,000. He also told the Sergeant of Police that “Spanish Man” also gave him a glove and a knife and told him to throw them away.
The Sergeant of Police related that Caesar also told him that he discarded the items at the seawall even as he thought something bad had happened. This trial is continuing at the High Court in Demerara.

Zoey Phillips had earlier testified that Caesar had confided in her after killing the family. The woman had testified that she and Caesar lived together and were the businesswoman’s neighbours.
According to her, Persaud’s call name was “Jenny”. She said that on the night of September 21, 2012, she and Caesar were in their bedroom when he left and told her that he was going over to Persaud’s home to get some money because he was “broke”. According to her, she saw when Caesar, who was clad in a three-quarter pants, collect a small wooden-handle knife and a pair of gloves from the kitchen area before leaving for the woman’s home.
She said that this was after midnight.
Phillips recounted that her ex-lover gained entry into the woman’s yard through an opening in a zinc fence. She recalled that she went back into their bedroom and about a minute after she looked through the bedroom window and saw Caesar climbing up the stairs and into Persaud’s home.
She explained that she was able to see him because the woman’s home had clear windows. She told the court how she fell asleep and was awoken by Caesar, calling on her to open the backdoor.
The witness recounted that upon opening the door, she met Caesar who showed her a cardboard box containing several $20 and $100 notes, which amounted to about $3,000. She said that it was then her reputed husband told her that he “had to kill Jennifer” because she woke up and saw him in her home and knew him very well.
According to the witness, Caesar told her that while he was stabbing Jennifer Persaud, her older son woke up and saw him, and he also killed him and his younger brother. She added that when her reputed husband came back with the knife, it was covered in blood and his pants also had spots of blood. She recounted that Caesar took her to the seawall where he threw the knife into the river. She added that he discarded the gloves and pants in some nearby bushes and they went back home and slept.
But almost four years after the businesswoman and her sons were killed, Phillips said that she finally informed the police that it was her spouse who had committed the crime. She stated that on April 23, 2016, she visited the Tuschen Police Outpost where she made a report against Caesar and requested a restraining order. She said the man was arrested the following day and taken to the Leonora Police Station where police held a confrontation between them.
Phillips said that during that time, she reminded Caesar that he killed Jennifer Persaud and the two children, but he denied and told police that she was lying on him. She, however, explained that she kept it a secret for so long because she was afraid of him, as he was very abusive.
Police Sergeant Detective Kurt Williams testified that the fingerprints obtained from the scene of the murders were not useful, as they were smudged and blurred.
Sergeant Williams told the court that he was in a party of policemen from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown who journeyed to Persaud’s home on September 22, 2012 at Lot 67 Sea View, Anna Catherina where she and her sons were found with their throats slit.
According to Sergeant Williams, when he arrived on the scene, he met with Sergeant Singh who told him something which caused him to examine several items in the woman’s home for fingerprints. The police witness recounted that he dusted the wardrobe drawers, bed head, the eastern part of the backdoor and several items in the shop area.
Asked to explain his reasons for examining the items, Sergeant Williams said that, “They appeared disturbed.”
He said he obtained about four latent fingerprints from the eastern part of the backdoor after which he returned to the Crime Laboratory at CID Headquarters. He told the jury that he examined the fingerprint expressions that he obtained but they were smudged, blurred and devoid of specific characteristics, hence they were unfit for comparison.

 

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