Five found guilty of beheading prominent businessman in Trinidad
Published:Tuesday | December 17, 2019 | 2:21 PM
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Fourteen years after the headless corpse of a prominent businessman was found in Central Trinidad, a High Court judge Monday night imposed the death sentence by hanging on the five people who were found guilty of his murder.
Justice Malcolm Holdip imposed the sentence on Shawn James, Caleb Donaldson, Jerome Murray, Terry Moore and Robert Franklyn after a 12-member jury returned the guilty verdicts in the death of Dr Eddie Koury in September 2005.
The court heard that Koury, the managing director of an import and distribution company, was abducted at his office on September 21, 2005.
Two days later, his headless corpse was found in central Trinidad.
His head has never been found.
The trial began in November last year and after the verdict was announced, attorney Daniel Khan, asked that his client Shawn James not be executed and that the High Court instead start with a 30-year prison sentence, deducting the 14 years already spent in custody.
The death sentence is mandatory for murder in Trinidad and the five men were found guilty on the joint enterprise premise and not felony murder which could have attracted a prison term.
The court heard from 89 witnesses including a Federal Bureau of Investigations DNA analyst from the United States.
The High Court heard a statement from James to the police in which he said he cut off Koury’s head and threw it out at sea where no one would find it.
In the statement, James admitted to being part of a plan to kidnap Koury, driving around with his body in the trunk of a stolen car, beheading him and dumping the body.
“I went in the car and take out the cutlass I borrowed. I tried to pull out the body from the trunk but it was heavy…the head hang out the trunk and I take the cutlass and chop off the head and threw it in the sea, no blood was flowing. I put back the cutlass in the trunk and wash my hand with Coca Cola sweet drink,” James said in a statement.
The murder had sent shock waves throughout Trinidad with many calling for the state to resume executions.
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