AFTER 17 years, a prison officer has been charged with murder by officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations (HBI), Cold Case Unit.
Prison Officer I, Richard Montoute, aka ‘Richard’ and ‘Redman’ was charged with the death of Akua Cromwell that occurred in 2006.
He was charged with the offence by WPC Pamphile of the Cold Case Unit, on Thursday following advice received from Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, SC, on Wednesday.
The accused appeared virtually before Magistrate Maureen Baboolal-Gafoor at the Port of Spain Fifth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to answer the charge.
The matter was postponed to April 4 and transferred to the Port of Spain Eight Magistrates’ Court, a release from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) on Friday stated.
Cromwell, 26, of Carenage was on duty at his job in the Sea Lots district on August,10 2006, when he allegedly got into an argument with another man and allegedly armed himself with a knife and made threats to kill the victim.
As the argument continued, the assailant allegedly chased the deceased on foot, cornered him and stabbed him in the chest with the knife before running off.
The matter was investigated by HBI Region One detectives who exhausted all avenues available to them at that time. The matter was then referred to the Cold Case Unit in November 2022 and the file reviewed.
As a result, the Cold Case Specialist made certain recommendations to investigators who then took a clinical approach in bringing closure to the matter. Following painstaking enquiries, a male suspect was arrested in connection with the matter.
Investigations were spearheaded by Snr Supt Rishi Singh and Supt Douglas and supervised by Sgt Nanhoo, with assistance from the Cold Case Specialist, Kirk Griffith, Cpl (Ag) Phillips, WPCs Rodriguez and Ramkissoon and PC Mc David, all of the HBI Cold Case Unit. This is the 20th cold case solved by the Cold Case Unit since its launch in 2016, the release stated.
