The trial of Attorney Oscar Selgado for abetment to commit murder is over and on March 8th, he will know his fate.
For the past four plus months we've been closely following the trial.
Selgado is accused of hiring another man, Giovanni Ramirez, to kill a woman, Marilyn Barnes. She had lodged a complaint against him to the General Legal Commission.
And today in court, both the DPP and Selgado's attorney gave their final submissions. Since Selgado previously testified that he had never met Ramirez, the DPP stated that Ramirez would have had to gather intimate knowledge of someone he never met, considering that his statement discusses the complaint at the General Legal Council as well as Selgado's vehicle and home.
Selgado's attorney, Adoph Lucas, has argued that the trial was unfair, due to the secondary testimonies of the two main witnesses. Throughout the trial, Lucas has also emphasized the lack of visual evidence to prove that the voice on the alleged recording was indeed Selgado's.
After today's session, the media spoke with the DPP.
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, DPP
"I don't think there were any surprises from the other side in terms of what we expected them to come to say."
Reporter:
"He said you've not explained at all what happened to the DPP CD's."
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, DPP
"That was also dealt with at the case management stage. The copy of the CD also went missing at the office of the DPP."
Reporter:
"Do you feel that it's a strong case the crown has?"
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, DPP
"We wouldn't have been prosecuting him if we didn't think that there was a likelihood that he would be convicted."
Reporter:
"Because the defense is telling the judge today that he should be paying any attention to the secondary evidence of Wilfredo Ferrufino and the Commissioner of Police having listened to the audio, and then the heresy evidence of Giovanni Ramirez."
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, DPP
"What did you expect the defense to say? Did you expect the defense to say, listen to it, pay attention to it, and rely on it?"
Reporter:
"What does it mean that he's also telling the judge and I think the judge also said himself that he must approach Giovanni Ramirez's statement with a lot of caution, could that hurt your case?"
Cheryl Lynn Vidal, DPP
"Those are the words that need to be used, those are ordinary words used in directions to judges, to juries, when considering evidence. Giovanni Ramirez did not actually come to testify, he didn't go into the box to give his testimony and he wasn't cross examined so of course the judge is being asked to rely on a written statement that has not been tested by cross examination so the judge has to approach it with caution, that does not mean that he cannot rely on it and in this case as you would have seen from following it, there are so many aspects from that statement that have been independently confirmed so our argument was that of course the judge can reach the position that he can safely rely on the statement."
We'll let you know what happens on March 8th.
