ATTORNEY Joseph Melville was yesterday found guilty by a Port of Spain jury of four criminal offences including attempted murder, and conspiracy to murder his secretary, Patricia Cox, in 2001.
Melville, of Foster Road, Sangre Grande, was also found guilty by the nine-member jury before Justice Maria Wilson at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain of kidnapping and assaulting the woman. After the guilty verdicts were announced, he was taken into prison custody and will be sentenced on June 13.
It was the second time the attorney went on trial for the offences, which took place on June 28, 2001. In 2004, he was found guilty alongside “PH” taxi-driver Hilton Winchester but later appealed the ruling and a fresh trial was ordered. Both of them were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
The State’s case was that Melville had hired three men, Jason Holder, Ainsley “Beetle” Alleyne and Winchester, to kill Cox on June 28, 2001, when he found out she had reported him to the police after he cashed in two insurance policies on behalf of a client and failed to pay the money to the client.
Winchester took Cox and the two men to Cumberland Hill, Fort George, St James, where they tried to kill her. She escaped by jumping over a precipice. Alleyne, 23, of Dundonald Hill, was once the main witness in the case, and was granted an immunity to testify against Melville. He died after giving evidence at the preliminary enquiry at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.
Defence attorneys Ravi Rajcoomar, Larry Williams and Radeyah Ali appeared for Melville, while State attorney Anju Bhola prosecuted.