Relatives of former Independent Senator Dana Seetahal, SC, are still mourning her death.
Speaking to reporters following a small vigil outside the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court marking the three-year anniversary of her murder yesterday, sister Susan Francois said their family was still struggling to cope.
“We as a family feel that loss so excruciatingly everyday although three years have past. I can tell you it is no easier now that when it happened,” Francois said.
Francois, her brother Omar and daughter Danielle were joined by a handful of friends, including Sophia Chote SC, who held placards bearing Seetahal’s name and handed out yellow roses to people driving by.
“She was sister, best friend, confidant. We just wanted the public to know that this great woman that we are so proud to call our sister should be remembered,” she said.
The vigil was held hours after the preliminary inquiry of 11 men who were charged with her murder was adjourned.
Francois noted that family members were closely monitoring the case and attend all hearings.
“We continue to expect and hope for justice and I’m sure eventually it would come whether man-made or otherwise,” Francois said.
Yesterday’s hearing of the inquiry had to be adjourned shortly after it was called as one of the accused men, Stephan Cummings, did not have an attorney. Cummings had an attorney at previous hearings but informed the court he could could no longer afford to pay and had to apply for Legal Aid and Advisory Authority representation.
Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno stood the matter down and left court to contact the authority for a status update. When she returned, she informed Cummings that an attorney had been appointed to his case last week but subsequently turned it down.
“I was given the assurance that another appointment would be done expeditiously,” Cedeno said as she adjourned the case to May 18 .
Thus far, only four witness, all police officers, have been cross-examined by defence attorneys in the inquiry, with dozens more expected to testify.
Seetahal was shot dead behind the wheel of her SUV while driving along Hamilton Holder Street, Woodbrook, on May 4, 2014. She was returning home after a spending the night at the Ma Pau casino on Ariapita Avenue.
A little over a year later, Rajaee Ali, his brothers Ishmael and Hamid Ali, Devaughn Cummings, Ricardo Stewart, Earl Richards, Stephan Cummings, Kevin Parkinson, Leston Gonzales, Roget Boucher, and Gareth Wiseman were charged with her murder.
David Ector, Deon Peters and Ali’s wife Stacy Griffith were not charged with murder, but were charged alongside the 11 men with being members of a gang.
Their preliminary inquiry was initially delayed after they asked former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar to recuse herself from the case, as members of the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit (CGIU) who investigated the crime were part of her security detail.
She agreed and was replaced by Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno.
In May, last year, Cedeno was forced to dismiss the gang charges, freeing Ector and Peters, due to a technical error by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The DPP’s Office had admitted to laying the charges indictably (heard and determined by a High Court Judge and jury), as opposed to summarily (heard and determined by a magistrate) as prescribed by the legislation.
Unlike Ector and Peters, Stacy Griffith, the third person who was charged for being a gang member and not with the murder, will remain with her husband, Rajaee Ali, and ten others who are still before the court for Seetahal’s murder, as she has a separate charge of benefiting from the gang’s activity,which was laid correctly by the DPP’s Office.
