Death by ‘plastic bag suffocation’

Dr Shubhakar Karra Paul was testifying in the trial of Royale Achim Juwan Trotman, No. 6 Gall Hill Terrace, St John, who is accused of murdering his next-door neighbour, 74-year-old Edghill, sometime between November 28 and December 1, 2021.

He has pleaded not guilty. The case, which began last Wednesday, is being heard by a jury of ten women and two men, with Justice Elwood Watts presiding, in Supreme Court No. 2A.

The pathologist said he conducted a post-mortem on Edghill on December 16, 2021, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. At the time he deemed it an unnatural death.

He noted that asphyxia is when one’s normal respiratory mechanism is cut off and the lack of oxygen results in death.

Questioned by prosecutor Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis as to how long it would take on average for someone to die from plastic bag suffocation, Karra Paul said he believed it would take two to three minutes.

The witness went on to explain that certain factors would need to be considered as well: the strength of the perpetrator and the strength, age and gender of the victim. If they were the same gender, and of similar build and strength, then it might be possible to prevent the suffocation from happening, he added. However, once the perpetrator is able to hold a bag over a person’s head for two to three minutes, “that is sufficient to cause a person to asphyxiate and die”.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Lalu Hanuman, the doctor said he looked under the deceased’s fingernails and found nothing. He therefore never included it in either the preliminary postmortem report or the final one.

Asked whether it would not be expected for someone to fight back, tear the plastic bag or scratch the offender, the pathologist said he would not expect everybody “to act in a particular way”, because if the person were of “a different gender and smaller”, they might be unable to fight back.

State Counsel Dr Zoe King is also acting on behalf of the State. (SD)