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Friday, July 3, 2009

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FOODIE SPORTS SCOPE REAL TALKS Bring on the land crabs Appropriate template important for Caribbean Games success
Chief prosecutor Bernard Turner: Murder accused had help By ARTESIA DAVIS ~ NG Senior Reporter ~ artesia@nasguard.com: Murder accused Troyniko McNeil had help in taking the life of popular handbag designer Harl Taylor, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday. Chief prosecutor Bernard Turner told the jurors in his opening statement that the evidence will show that McNeil and an unknown accomplice inflicted 42 to 50 injuries to Taylor's body. Taylor was found face-up in a pool of blood on his bed, in his underwear, with the broken blade of a brown-handled knife near his body, according to the evidence. McNeil, 22, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. His father Troy McNeil was once Taylor's roommate and business partner, the court heard. The door to Taylor's residence and design studio at Mountbatten House, West Hill Street, was partially open when policeman Jimmy Bastian and four Dominican workers arrived there shortly before 10 a.m. on November 18, 2007, according to his testimony. Bastian, who called police after discovering Taylor's body, said he picked up the Dominicans from the Park Manor Hotel on Market Street at the request of the defendant's father, who wanted them to collect some items from the residence. Bastian said he expected Taylor would let him in, but he got no response. Bastian said he went inside after he noticed the door was opened by "about an inch." Once inside, Bastian said he and the Dominicans went into the kitchen to check the stove because he smelled propane gas. After discovering that the stove was off, Bastian said he went into the "lobby area" of the residence, where he saw blood on the floor. He said he asked the Dominicans to remain downstairs as he checked upstairs. Bastian said Taylor's bedroom door was open and he saw a bloodstained pillow on the floor and "a portion of an arm." The jury viewed the bloody crime scene through photographs taken by Corporal 404 Kevin Turnquest. Turnquest, who presented 82 color photographs of the scene, testified that dripping blood from an upstairs bedroom had seeped through the cypress ceiling and accumulated on the floor tiles in the foyer when he arrived at around 10:35 a.m. Turnquest said he photographed Taylor's body, which had multiple lacerations to the torso, in his blood-soaked bed. Photos of the blood stains on the staircase railing and bloody footprints and shoe prints in the hallway that led to Taylor's bedroom were shown to the jury. Clothes, a sofa, a laptop, a leather Harl Taylor bag, and newspapers with blood spattered on them could be viewed from photographs of the bedroom. There was also blood spatter on the walls of the bedroom and master bathroom. A table near the bedroom that held a can of Diet Coke and a ceramic plate was also bloodstained. The case continues before Senior Justice Anita Allen today. Turner is assisted by Neil Brathwaite and Darnell Dorsett. McNeil is represented by Murrio Ducille, Paul Wallace, Alex Morley and Krysta Smith. Friday, July 3, 2009