Magistrate orders pre-emptory hearing in Crum-Ewing matter

… possibility of case being closed

City Magistrate Judy Latchman on Thursday afternoon warned prosecution Counsel that if on the next hearing, witness Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mitchell Caesar is absent, the court will have no choice but to close the Courtney Crum-Ewing’s case for yet a second time.

This announcement came following the testimony of second witness Eon Jackson when the prosecution disclosed that the prime witness, Caesar remains hospitalised due to a case of high blood pressure. Latchman declared that the case was reopened for the simple task of taking evidence from the two witnesses and that the matter cannot be prolonged for extensive periods.

Jackson, under cross examination by Hughes, related that he received a package containing five spent shells from one Constable Brown, the very bullets which were found at the crime scene.

Regan “Grey Boy” Rodrigues when shown the exhibits by the court orderly, kept a straight face, appearing all but focused and was heard saying ” Your Worship, I dunno what is going on…” when questioned whether he had anything to say in relation to same being shown to the witness.

A second exhibit was presented as the accused cried “I’m in a boat sailing… I left everything in the hands of God, what happens gotta happen…”

The case continues before the Court of Magistrate Latchman on June 5.

Rodrigues was arrested in April at Middle Road, La Penitence, Georgetown, and brought before the courts shortly after, as the charges were re-instituted against him.

The recent decision to reopen the case by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, came shortly after the surface of “new evidence”. Rodrigues was released on September 14, 2016, owing to insufficient evidence as the prosecution had failed to establish a case against him for the murder.

Crum-Ewing was gunned down in 2015 as he encouraged persons to turn out to vote for the upcoming general election. Rodrigues is no stranger to the courts as a previous case of illegal gun possession was ruled in his favour shortly before the murder charge against him was dismissed. According to reports, ballistic tests on the hand gun found in Rodrigues’s possession proved that the weapon was one and the same used to murder Crum-Ewing.