Mother admitted buying 3 tablets at Berbice park – Police

Children poisoning trial

…says it was for cold

Awena Rutherford, who is on trial for allegedly poisoning her two children, reportedly admitted, under caution, that she went to the Berbice park in Georgetown and purchased “greenish” tablets to treat a cold her children had. This was the account of Police Detective Sargent Lawrence Thomas, who testified at the High Court on Tuesday that he administered the caution statement of the accused woman on April 3, 2014, at the Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara, one week after her children; Jabari and Odasia Codogan died

from poisoning.
Sargent Thomas indicated that he was the principal investigator and followed up the March 27, 2014 report of the murder. Reading from the caution statement that was admitted into evidence by presiding Judge Navindra Singh, Rutherford said she was having difficulty looking after her children as she was not working.
On the day of the deaths of her offspring, she travelled to the capital city to check on a job application to join the Guyana Police Force. This was after she dropped them off at an aunt in Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
The statement added that she bought three tablets at the Berbice park before uplifting the children at Ann’s Grove and returning to her sister’s Supply, Branch Road Mahaicony, ECD home where she was staying. She reportedly told the Police witness that the tablets which she bought on the park were for a cold.
Thomas further noted that Rutherford claimed that her sister did not answer when she said “goodnight” and that she started to argue because she did not say where she was going. Later on, after she took a bath, she reportedly gave the children the tablets.
“I broke one tablet in half and gave the children and I drank the other two tablets,” the caution statement quoted the defendant as saying.
After the children started vomiting, they were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) where Sealey reportedly asked her sister what she had given the children and Rutherford admitted giving the children the tablets, the statement claims. She was hospitalised for one week.
The jury also heard that Policeman Thomas took Rutherford to the Berbice park on April 4, 2014, to look for the man who sold her the tablets. However, under cross-examination by the defendant’s lawyer, Adrian Thompson, the Police witness admitted that the accused never told him that she bought “rat” poison.
The accused woman is indicted on two counts of manslaughter but she has denied that she killed her children. One-year-old Jabari Codogan and four-year-old Odasia Codogan died from pesticide poisoning. Prosecutors Tiffini Lyken, Shawnette Austin and Abaigail Gibbs are appearing for the State.
On Monday, the defendant’s sister, Monica Sealey, testified that her niece and nephew vomited after Rutherford gave them tablets to drink, claiming that they had a cold. However, Sealey maintained that the children did not have any cold. Sealey had also recalled that the four-year old hesitated to drink the tablet. The case continues before Justice Singh. (Shemuel Fanfair)