By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterIT WAS another emotional day of testimony in the murder trial of 37-year-old Paul Gooden, former consultant at Yummy Bakery, St. Andrew, in the Home Circuit Court.
Gooden is charged with the murder of his wife, 36-year-old Ingrid Andrade-Gooden, an administrator at the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC). Her body was found in mangroves near to the Jamaica Maritime Institute along the Norman Manley Boulevard, St. Andrew, on November 8, 2003.
In yesterday's third day of testimony, Ruby Andrade, mother of the deceased and retired Registrar of Titles, told the court that when the accused told her that his wife did not come home on the night of November 7 last year, she knew her daughter was dead.
Mrs. Andrade wept as she told the court that it was 'just a feeling' she had, that her daughter was not alive because her daughter "never sleep out".
BODY DUMPED
The Crown is alleging that she was strangled at her home at Hartford Towers Apartment, 7 Sullivan Avenue, St. Andrew, between November 6 and 7 last year, before her body was dumped in the mangroves.
Mrs. Andrade said she had made an arrangement for her daughter to come to her home with the laundry on the morning of November 7 last year only to see the accused turning up, asking her where Ingrid was. Mrs. Andrade said the accused then informed her that Ingrid had left in the dark before 6 a.m., telling him that she needed her space.
He went on to tell her, Mrs. Andrade testified, that Ingrid did not even bother to get their two children ready for school before leaving the residence. She told the court that she found the information very strange, noting that her daughter would never leave her house without attending to the children. She said she tried calling Ingrid on her mobile telephone but all she got was a recording.
After she heard a news item on the evening of October 8, last year she said she and her husband, retired Director of Public Prosecutions, Glen Andrade, Q.C., went with policemen to the Maddens Funeral Parlour where she saw the body of her daughter. "When they lifted the sheet she had no face because it was crushed completely like something ran over it," Mrs. Andrade said.
POSSESSIVE AND OBSESSIVE
Venetia Phillips, a project officer at the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) and friend of the deceased, told the court that the accused was very "possessive and obsessive" in his relationship with Ingrid.
She said he could always be seen sitting in the car park outside Ingrid's office, sometimes daily. She said there was an incident when a tailor came to the NHDC to Ingrid and the accused who was parked in the driveway came to the door and grabbed her arm. She said Ingrid was "very embarrassed by the incident."
Detective Sergeant Dennis Ballen said that on November 10 last year he took Gooden who was then in custody to the Kingston Public Hospital to be treated for scratches to his face and hand.
The trial continues today before Mrs. Justice Marva McIntosh.
