Boodoo v R

• Jurisdiction: Trinidad & Tobago
• Judge: Fraser, J.
• Judgment Date: 06 March 1967
• Neutral Citation: TT 1967 CA 21
• Date: 06 March 1967
• Court: Court of Appeal (Trinidad and Tobago)
• Docket Number: No. 99 of 1966

Court of Appeal

Fraser, J.

No. 99 of 1966

Boodoo

and

R.

Appearances:

Mr. S. Pandaye appeared for the appellant.

Mr. A. Warner, Acting Assistant Solicitor-General, appeared for the Crown.

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction — Murder — Whether judge directed jury properly on the definition of murder — Whether the question of accidental death should be left to the jury.

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction — Murder — Blood stains — No evidence identifying the Rhesus factor as being the accused.

Facts: Appellant convicted of murder. Appealed against conviction. Argued inter alia that judge failed to direct jury properly on the definition of murder and that judge should have directed the jury on the possibility of accidental death.

Facts: Appellant convicted of murder. Blood stains had been found on his shirt. Appellant appealed against conviction. Argued inter alia that judge ought to have told the jury that they were entitled to say this was not the blood of the deceased because there was no evidence identifying the Rhesus factor as being the same.

Held: In order to support the submission that a misdirection occurred, it will have to be shown that the contracted definition of murder there given was capable of misleading a jury. This cannot be shown. Taken as a whole the summing up fully included the definition of murder and the consequential directions were adequate for the purposes of this case. There was no material whatsoever upon which the judge could have left to the jury the consideration of accidental death. Appeal accordingly dismissed. Conviction and sentence affirmed.

Held: In the light of certain evidence the trial judge properly left it to the jury to say, having regard to all the circumstances, whether the stains of blood Group B found on the accused's shirt was the blood of the deceased. The court cannot find any impropriety in this direction given by the trial judge. Appeal accordingly dismissed. Conviction and sentence affirmed.

Fraser, J.

1 This appeal can be called the case of the missing buttons. On the night of May 1, 1965 policemen went to the house of Ramkalliah and found her recently dead body lying on a bed with marks of violence. In a search of the premises two shirt buttons were found in the gallery. One of the witnesses called on behalf of the accused, Dookram Ramcharitar, said that he actually saw the police pick up the buttons from the floor of the gallery during the search. There is therefore no doubt that the buttons, which turned out to be the strongest link in the chain of circumstances in this case, were found soon after the discovery of the body of the deceased.

2 Shortly after the buttons were found a party of policemen visited the home of the accused. He was aroused and he invited the police to enter. He was asked whether he could account for his movements on that day, the time then being before midnight. He said he had been drinking and could not remember all he did or where he went. When asked whether he could show the clothing he wore he indicated the short pants which he was then wearing and he fetched also a khaki shirt saying that he had worn it during the day. Upon examination it was discovered that two buttons of that shirt were missing, and a fragment of one of the buttons still remained on the shirt held by the thread. When one of the buttons was compared with the remains of the missing button on the shirt it was found that the piece which vacs broken fitted perfectly the fragment which was left on the shirt. At that stage the accused was cautioned and taken in custody.

3 The arrival of the police at the scene that night followed a report which in substance was that shortly after 8.30 p.m. a man named Lalsingh Lodie heard the screams of a woman. Not merely did he hear screams, but the voice was of a person whom he knew, and he heard the voice he recognised as Ramkalliah's shout, ‘Oh God, Oh God’. The sounds he heard were like those of a person being choked. On hearing this Lodie made loud noise and people gathered. They all then proceeded to the house of Ramkalliah and found her dead body on her bed lying face upwards. There were blood and marks of violence on the body. The cause of death was stated to be manual strangulation, and this gives point to the evidence of Lalsingh Lodie who said the sounds he heard were like those of a person being choked.

4 The accused did not give evidence. His defence was that he...