Murder trial of Mtn View man opens
November 17, 2006
The trial of 32-year-old Ralston Baker of Mountain View Avenue, St. Andrew, who is accused of strangling his 49-year-old common-law wife and dumping the body in a barrel in their apartment, began on Wednesday in the Home Circuit Court.
The Crown, represented by Donald Bryan, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, is alleging that between August 25 and August 27, 2003, Baker used a piece of electrical cord to strangle Carol Harrison Blair.
Baker allegedly bound the hands and feet and threw the body face down in a barrel in the apartment where they lived at 87A Mountain View Avenue. Clothes were placed on top of the body. The police held Baker two months later at a supermarket in Portmore, St. Catherine.
Foul Odour
The landlady, 89-year-old Lydia Dennis, testified before the 12-member jury that she smelled a foul odour on August 27, 2003, and called the police. She said she last saw Blair alive on August 25, 2003.
The landlady said she did not see Blair the next day and she asked Baker what had happened to her. Baker told her that Blair and her sister had gone to the country to look for their mother who was ill. She told Baker that "Carol never leave this house, without telling me where she is going," but Baker did not reply....
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
