“I did not poison my children” – accused mother testifies

…will know fate today

Twenty-five-year-old Hofosawa Awena Rutherford, who is standing trial on accusations that she poisoned her two children to death, will know her fate today following the prosecution closing its case.
In an unsworn statement from the prisoner’s dock on Wednesday, the accused woman in a bout of tears and excessive shaking said in an unsworn statement that she loved her children; that she’s still traumatised from losing them and that she never bought rat poison to poison them, adding that the Police treated her unfairly.
“I love my children very much… I did not poison my children,” she claimed.

Her remarks at the manslaughter trial were only audible after a brief reprimand by presiding Judge Navindra Singh who had observed that he could not hear what she was saying. The defendant at that point quickly gathered her composure, asking if she could repeat which she later did in a much softer tone, without hyper-ventilation.
Despite her claim of innocence, multiple Police witnesses maintained that Rutherford repeatedly said she was stressed and had problems and that she indeed gave her offspring, what she claimed were cold tablets. Her lawyer, Adrian Thompson harped on the fact that his client was always consistent in saying that she bought cold tablets and that she never intended to buy rat poison. The prosecution however, did not take kindly to the defendant’s story.
“Who would go to the Plaisance Bus Park to buy cold tablets from a man that sells rat poison?” was the question State Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken put to the 12-member jury during her closing address. Lyken even contended that the accused woman attempted to change her story during her emotional unsworn statement, saying that she supposedly bought the tablets at a pharmacy. The State counsel opined that Rutherford strayed from previous recollection of events.
During Wednesday’s hearing, father of the two deceased children, Jabari Codogan Sr, testified via Skype from Brooklyn, New York, USA, that he supported his children even after he separated from Rutherford and that he communicated with them every day. The senior Codogan told the court that he was never told they were suffering from a cold but did admit under cross-examination that his son, Jabari, was treated for asthma-related conditions.
The overseas-based man also stated that on the day of the deaths, he received a text message to call Rutherford on her number, but related that he did not have credit to do so. The father witnessed to post-mortem examinations of the children at the Georgetown Public Hospital and attended their funerals on April 6. The accused and the children were staying with her sister, Monica Sealey and her husband Curt who both testified before the jury that they never noticed any cold symptoms in the children on that fateful day. The prosecution’s case was that Rutherford called the children into her bedroom and gave one-year-old Jabari Codogan and four-year-old Odascia Codogan two halves of one carbon tablet which caused their deaths on March 27, 2014. She also drank two tablets and was hospitalised for seven days.
Government Pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh confirmed that the children died from pesticide poisoning by way of ingesting aluminum phosphide which is commonly known as carbon tablets. Prosecutors Shawnette Austin and Abigail Gibbs also appeared for the State. The jury will deliberate and return its verdict this afternoon. (Shemuel Fanfair)