The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – Eight Mile Rock resident Denzel Leroy Jones, 33, suffered more than 30 injuries to the body and died of blood loss, a Supreme Court jury was told yesterday.

Jones, a container port employee, was murdered in 2009.

Garvin Adderley, 34, and Raymond Pennington, 31, are on trial for his murder.

They are represented by Carlson Shurland and Mario Gray respectively.

The prosecution alleges that on July 15, 2009, Jones was attacked some time after 6am by two men who had kicked in the front door of his apartment in Jones Town.

Pathologist Dr Cornelius Kacharli took the stand yesterday.

He performed an autopsy on the deceased on July 17, 2009 at the Rand Memorial Hospital morgue.

According to his findings, the victim sustained two types of injuries: “sharp force” injuries to the head, neck, limbs, and torso, and blunt force injuries to the head and torso.

He noted that “the sharp force” injury to the left arm was the most severe. Two major arteries were severed in the arm.

The cause of death, he said, was blood loss.

He noted that there was no bleeding inside the body on examination because the victim had bled externally elsewhere.

Dr Kacharli said the victim had also sustained a fractured left collarbone, as well as fractures in three ribs.

These were not life threatening injuries, he added.

When asked by Prosecutor Erica Kemp whether he had observed any defensive wounds on the victim, Dr Kacharli said the wound to the left arm qualifies as such.

He explained that defensive wounds occur when someone is trying to protect against an attack, and normally occur in the hands or limbs.

When asked by Mr Shurland whether blood samples were given to police for analysis, Dr Kacharli said one sample was.

Mr Shurland then asked about the deceased’s height and weight. Dr Kacharli said the victim was about 6ft tall and weighed about 200lbs.

Mr Gray asked who was present while he conducted the autopsy.

Dr Kacharli said his assistant and some police officers also attended the post mortem.

Also giving evidence was Police Woman Deidre Nesbitt.

Nesbitt, one of the officers on duty during the early morning hours of July 15, 2009, said she went to a two-story apartment building in Jones Town, where she saw the victim lying on the ground outside.

She arrived around 6am.

Officer Nesbitt told the court the victim told her that two or three men kicked open his front door and asked for money.

The victim told her that after he asked, “What money?” the men started beating and stabbing him.

She said the deceased told her that he heard a gunshot, but that he was not shot.

She claimed the victim told her the men threw him from an upstairs window.

Officer Nesbitt said the victim crawled toward the road and screamed for help.

The victim, she claimed, also told her that he recognised the voice of one of his attackers as Raymond Pennerman, who worked with him at the container port.

“The deceased gave you a name Raymond Pennerman?” asked Mr Gray.

“Yes sir,” the officer replied.

“Did you ascertain whether there is a Raymond Pennerman at the container port?” He asked.

“No, sir,” she replied.

“Are you aware if there is a Mr Pennerman working at the container port? He asked.

“No,” she said.

“When the deceased indicated that he heard a voice, did you seek to ask whether the person was masked? He asked.

“No,” she replied.

Mr Gray asked officer Nesbitt if anyone else was standing near the deceased. She said Dr Leviticus Rolle was also at the scene and spoke with the victim.

“Did you hear the deceased say the name Raymond Pennerman or any other name to Dr Rolle?” he asked.

“No,” she replied.

“I put it to you that you never heard a name with respect to Raymond Pennerman or any other name, Mr Gray said.

‘No, sir, I do not agree,” officer Nesbitt said.

Mr Gray then told officer Nesbitt that her testimony in court regarding a gunshot was never mentioned in her police report, or in earlier statements she made in Magistrate’s Court.

She told the attorney that she made a note of it in her police notebook.

“You are supposed to use your notebook to write your report, and you failed to put in there,” Mr Gray said.

The trial will resume today.

Photos/Vandyke Hepburn