Perez denies the murder of Martin Gareau

(CNS): The man accused of murdering Martin Gareau at his home in Beach Bay Bodden Town in May 2008 took the witness stand on Tuesday and told the court he did not kill Gareau, a man whom he said he considered a friend. Already in its fourth week the trial of Josue Carillo Perez which is being heard by judge alone, has been dominated with legal argument and major disagreements between crown and defence counsel over evidence and expert witnesses.

Relating his account of that holiday weekend when the murder took place, Perez told the court who he was with at what times and how he had gone to a hotel with his girlfriend checking in around 4 O’clock Sunday afternoon.  

Defence counsel had begun answering the crown’s case on Monday afternoon with a witness who was jogging in the area of the deceased’s house on the Sunday morning who said he had witnessed someone at the door of Gareau’s home around 10:00am.

Although the prosecution have been unable to pin-point Gareau’s time of death he is known to have been alive around 1 O’clock in the afternoon on the Sunday before his murder as he spoke with his cousin on the phone. His body was then discovered on Tuesday morning and the crown has suggested that the Canadian national could have been killed anytime on Sunday afternoon or Monday.

Perez told the court that he spent the Sunday morning at his sister’s house where he lived in Bodden Town washing cars then he visited a friend in Windsor Park, and then collected his girlfriend from tropical gardens before they checked into a hotel on Seven Mile Beach for the remainder of the holiday weekend at around 4pm.

Perez said he had spoken to Gareau sometime on Sunday and they had chatted about Maria a friend of Perez’s girlfriend and a woman whom Gareau was interested in dating. Perez denied going to Gareau’s house that Sunday and said when the deceased had asked him about his plans he said he was going to spend it with his girlfriend. Perez told the court how he had visited the deceased’s home with Maria and his own girlfriend for dinner a few weeks before and he said he was friendly with Gareau. He said they had both experienced separations from their wives which they spoke of to each other about and that Gareau also had discussed his interest in Maria with the defendant.

Perez admitted having financial problems after losing his job at CUC and having his car repossessed but in the end he had not sought to regain possession of the car because he had had several problems and accidents with the car and it would cost too much to fix.

Following Perez’s evidence, the defence called PC Leslie who testified about an encounter with a man at the cordon he was guarding at the crime scene following the discovery of Gareau’s body. He said a man with a Caymanian accent had aggressively approached him at the cordon who wanted to speak with him. PC Leslie said the man behaved in a way that suggested he did not want people seeing him talk with a police officer and moved away from him when people passed, he  had asked if the officer was wired or if their was video pointed at him. When they spoke however, PC Leslie said he’d asked him if he knew who rents the Harley Davidson bikes. PC Leslie said he made notes at the time about the conversation, along with a description of the man whom he said had a tattoo and blondish/brownish hair with a Caymanian accent and passed it on to his Sergeant.

The defence continues its response with further witnesses on Wednesday morning.