BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AS the trial for the murder of Gregory Anthony Zakers drags into a fifth week, the matter has seen itself in a third voir dire.
The trial started on March 11 and was paused for one week.
Following the two previous voir dires, the witnesses, who were declared hostile, were allowed to testify in the presence of the jury.
The men facing the murder charge are Nelson Challenger, Shenroy Francis, Jomi Rawlins, Glenroy Smithen and Moses Gardener, who are said to have killed Zakers sometime between April 10 and 12, 2008.
The prosecution team, led by Director of Public Prosecutions Traverse Sinanan, has a list of 19 or 20 witnesses scheduled to testify on its behalf and, so far, only half, which include two who were declared hostile, have given evidence.
Included in the number of witnesses was Zakers' mother, who told the Court that she last saw her son on April 10, 2008. She said he had left home at around 5:45 p.m. but did not return.
Forensic Pathologist Dr. Stephen Jones, who performed the post-mortem on Zakers’ remains, had testified that he died as a result of "severe traumatic head injury" caused by severe blunt force.
One witness said she saw one of the accused men beating something or someone in a yard in St. Paul’s on the night Zakers was last seen alive, while another said he saw the deceased's cellular phone on a chest of drawers inside a certain house.
Despite their alleged police statements and attempts to have them testify accordingly, the hostile witnesses claimed to have had no knowledge of the events surrounding Zakers' death.
Both testified that they did not give statements to the police; one going as far as to state that he was threatened to sign such while the other said he did not know how his name got onto the statement.
While one witness testified that he did not know who the accused men were until he was imprisoned in 2012, the other said he knew them but they were not friends and he did not communicate with them.
All witnesses were also cross-examined at length by the accused men's attorneys.
The matter has stretched long beyond its expected time which has caused the Court to extend not only its trial hours but also its days, to include Fridays.
Each accused man is legally represented by his own attorney. The matter continues tomorrow (Apr. 17).
