Star witness testifies in Agassi Fraser murder case

Prominent attorney Kay Bacchus Browne says it was star prosecution witness Marlon Brando Lockhart who murdered Agassi Fraser.{{more}}

She is of the view that Lockhart is only pointing a finger at accused Odinga “Boomsa” Foster, because he wants to save himself.

“You murdered Agassi and to save yourself, you are fingering your friend!”

This was stated during cross-examination on day two of the trial at the High Court, in which Foster is charged with the 2009 murder of the 18-year-old.

Fraser’s body was discovered on October 10, 2009, lying face down in the Arnos Vale river.

He had been reported missing two days earlier.

His disappearance was reported on Friday, October 9, the same day a $60,000 ransom was demanded.

The 18-year-old went missing on the morning of Thursday, October 8, after he left home to visit his girlfriend, who lived a short distance away.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Lockhart said he had known the accused for quite a while and they were “best friends”.

Lockhart said around Carnival time, he asked Foster, who was employed as a loans officer at Kingstown Co-operative Credit Union (KCCU), how to go about obtaining a loan.

He said he needed the money to do a Hairoun promotion with his employer St Vincent Brewery Ltd.

“I told him that I don’t have an account there and he told me not to worry about that and that I must just bring two piece of identification cards…,” Lockhart told the court.

He said he visited Foster at his KCCU office and applied for the $2,000 loan. Lockhart said Foster gave him a cheque, but told him not to open it until he got outside.

He said he complied.

After cashing the cheque, Lockhart said he received $4,000, $2,000 more than he had asked for.

“I called him and told him that I got more than what I asked for. He tell me must not worry about it. He asked me where I was and I told him I was by the hospital side and he told me to meet him by Texaco gas station….”

Lockhart testified that when they met, Foster told him to take the $2,000 and give him the remainder.

Lockhart said sometime later, while he was in Bequia, Foster called him to inform him that he had been “caught”.

“I tell him when I come up from Bequia, I go talk to him.”

Lockhart said about three weeks later, he was fired from the Brewery, because of the alleged transaction with Foster.

According to Lockhart, he asked a woman, with whom he lived at Largo Heights for money to repay the KCCU.

He did not get that money.

Lockhart said he had managed to borrow $3,000 from Foster’s brother to repay the KCCU.

He said Foster’s brother did not know it was Foster who needed the money.

He testified that he gave Foster the money to pay back, but he was not sure if Foster paid the money.

Lockhart said months later, Foster told him that he had already paid back the money, but the KCCU was still “on his back” for other money he (Foster) owed.

“I ask him what other money and he told me more money….”

Lockhart said they tried finding ways in which they could raise money to help clear the debt, but nothing worked.

One day, Lockhart said Foster told him that he had a cousin and if he could “get” the cousin, his mother would pay the money and his father would go to the police.

When asked by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Colin John, if he knew what Foster meant when he said he could “get” the cousin, Lockhart replied “kidnap”.

“I asked him if he know what he was doing, because the same thing that happen at KCCU could come back up again. He said if he get the cousin, the parents go pay…. I ask him how he going do that and he tell me it have a place up Fenton Mountains…,” Lockhart mentioned.

Lockhart testified that they went to a house in Fenton, but he told Foster that it was not in good condition, and if they placed Foster’s cousin there, he could escape and report it to the police.

Lockhart said he then suggested that Foster use his apartment at Arnos Vale.

He said sometime in September, at around 4:30 a.m., Foster came in a taxi to where he was at Level Garden, at the home of a friend Aisha. He said Foster told him he needed help to move “something”.

He said he went with Foster and while in the taxi, Foster told him they were going to Arnos Vale to his (Lockhart’s) apartment.

When they arrived at the apartment, Lockhart said there was a body wrapped in a white sheet, covered in blood, in his bedroom.

“I ask him if he crazy to bring a taxi to move a dead body. He told me police on his back…. We began arguing and I told him if the taxi man realise is a dead body we putting in he trunk, he go call police or something…”

Lockhart said they carried the dead body outside to the vehicle, but by the time they got to the bottom of the steps, the taxi had already left.

Lockhart said they considered dumping the body where the taxi had been parked.

“I said I don’t think we can leave him here. I told him there was a river over the road, because the body was not going back in my place and I only helping him because he was my friend…,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart told the court that he held on to the feet of the deceased, while Foster held onto the upper body.

“After we cross the main road, when a car passed, somebody in the car shouted “Is not a dead body them men going there with…?”

Lockhart said Foster dropped the end he was holding and ran.

As Lockhart told his story, Fraser’s mother rocked back and forth in her seat and at times wiped tears from her eyes. Fraser’s father exited and entered the courtroom numerous times while Lockhart gave testimony.

“I shouted and told him he can’t run.”

Lockhart said they then took the body across the river, but because the water was high, they struggled to carry the body.

“The water was high and the wrapping had started to come off and then we saw some vines above and put the body there…,” Lockhart testified.

He said while in the river, they saw a man, whom they thought was a police officer. Foster ran and he went back to his apartment to clean up the bloodstained floor.

Lockhart said he later called Foster, who told him he was at a family friend in Fountain.

Lockhart never reported the matter.

“I never reported because Boomsa was a friend and I was helping him,” Lockhart said.

Bacchus-Browne, during cross examination, told Lockhart he had distanced himself from everything and was telling the court “a tissue of lies”.

Lockhart denied ever meeting Fraser and told the court that he only knew whose body it was when he heard it on the news.

“It was only when the police closed in on you that you pointed to Odinga,” Bacchus-Browne told Lockhart.

He said no.

“Don’t you remember telling Juliana (his child’s mother) that Odinga knew nothing about Agassi’s murder?” Bacchus-Browne questioned.

“Yes! I told her that,” he replied.

“You were a desperate man in need of money,” Bacchus-Browne again put to him.

“No! only until Odinga got me in this problem,“ Lockhart answered.

Continuing her cross-examination, Bacchus-Browne asked why he did not look at the cheque he said Foster gave him.

“I didn’t look at it because I thought it would be safe. He told me that I didn’t have to pay back anything,” he said.

He also added that he never made a plan with Foster to kidnap Fraser because he did not know him.

Presiding judge Frederick Bruce-Lyle also questioned Lockhart.

“By offering him your house to use, weren’t you a part of the plan?”

Lockhart said no.

Bacchus-Browne put it to the witness that he was lying when he said Foster visited him at 4:30 a.m. and it was around 10 p.m. when four persons came to Level Gardens in a taxi and called him.

He denied that.

The crown has already called four witnesses in the matter, including Fraser’s mother and girlfriend.

The case continues at the High Court.(KW)