2 for trial in West End Police Station murderBy Andre Bagoo Wednesday, October 28 2009
click on pic to zoom in
Murder accused: Kristian Porter, 17, ...
TWO DIEGO Martin residents were yesterday committed to stand trial for the murder of mother of one Camille Daniel-Nottingham, 39, which took place outside of a police station earlier this year.
Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls ruled that Kristian Porter, 17, and Xavier Thomas, 22, both of Richplain Diego Martin, should face a jury on charges of murdering Daniel- Nottingham, the wife of Army Lance Corporal Stanley Nottingham. Daniel-Nottingham was shot as she drove into the West End Police Station on Wendy Fitzwilliam Boulevard, Diego Martin on June 24.
Mc Nicolls’ ruling came after lawyers for the State and the defence wrangled over the legal doctrine of effective withdrawal which relates to whether or not an accused person should be allowed to escape liability for a crime because he had changed his mind at the last minute.
The State, represented by attorney Evans Welch on a special fiat to prosecute on behalf of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, argued that the threshold for effective withdrawal is high.
“A defendant must serve unequivocal notice,” Welch said. “You cannot just leave a place. You must let your confederate know that your changing of place goes with a wish to let them know that this is the end....Repentance only would not suffice. Where you have encouraged something, you must now countermand that encouragement by saying something more effective than, ‘I gone.’ It must be an effective withdrawal.”
But defence attorney Asha Watkins, holding on behalf of Keith Scotland, argued that the doctrine of effective withdrawal applied in the circumstances of the case.
Eventually, as members of Daniel-Nottingham’s family looked on in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrate’s Court, Mc Nicolls ruled that he was not convinced by the defence’s arguments.
“Whether I find that there is an effective withdrawal or not, that is really a matter for a jury to decide based on the facts,” he said. “This court is satisfied that a prima facie case is made out.”
On June 24, Daniel-Nottingham left her home at Finch Drive, River Estate in Diego Martin to meet her friend Abigail Jagessar at the VEMCO compound at the Diamond Vale Industrial Estate, Factory Road, just opposite the West End Police Station. The women sat chatting in Daniel’s gold-coloured Nissan Almera when two armed bandits jumped into the car, placed a gun to Daniel’s side and ordered her to drive.
Having been ordered to turn onto the Diego Martin Main Road, she frantically drove into the West End Police Station. She was shot in the back and slumped over her friend.
The two men were later charged with seven offences by investigator Cpl Godfrey Vincent. Among the charges are allegations that they kidnaped Daniel-Nottingham and Jagessar on June 24.
They are also charged with robbing Daniel-Nottingham of an Apple i-Phone worth $6,000 and a handbag valued $280, and robbing Jagessar of a Nokia mobile phone worth $1,000. Porter was also charged with unlawfully possessing a 9 mm pistol as well as seven rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
Daniel-Nottingham’s murder at a police station was the first time in recent memory that such an incident has taken place in this country.
However, since that incident, other precedents for murders in supposedly safe environments have also been set. Murder accused Peter Garcia was killed in the yard of the Rio Claro Magistrates’ Court last week Monday.
.jpg)
