By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterKENT PANTRY Q.C, Director of Public Prosecutions, told jurors in the Home Circuit Court yesterday that evidence tendered by 39-year-old Paul Gooden, suggesting that his wife was unfaithful was the perfect motive for him to have killed her.
Mr. Pantry was referring to the sexually explicit emails that were brought in to boost Gooden's defence, and which suggested that his wife, 36-year-old Ingrid Andrade-Gooden, had a number of extra-marital affairs.
Mr. Pantry asked the jury not to believe defence attorney Lord Anthony Gifford Q.C.'s characterisation of Gooden as "a sedate, soft little man who as we say in Jamaica cannot mash ants."
He reminded them that the accused had been a very uncooperative witness who on many occasions simply ignored the judge's instructions about answering questions. Mr. Pantry said Gooden demonstrated in court the sort of person he was.
STRANGLED
Gooden, a former distribution consultant at Yummy Bakery, Kingston, is charged with the murder of his wife who was an administrator at the National Housing Development Corporation, (NHDC). The Crown is alleging that Gooden strangled his wife between November 6 and 7 last year at their home at Hartford Towers Apartment, 7 Sullivan Avenue and dumped the body in mangroves off the Norman Manley Highway Kingston. The body was found on November 8 last year.
Lord Gifford, in his summation, said the prosecution failed to prove that Gooden killed his wife. He said the correct thing was for Gooden to be acquitted so other investigations can take place to find the real killer(s). He reminded the jury that if there were reasons to believe that someone else committed the crime, they had a duty to acquit Gooden. The defence lawyer described the prosecution's case as one with many unanswered questions.
EMAILS
He referred to the emails which the deceased had sent to one Victor Hugo and those Hugo sent to her as a clear case that she had been flirting with dangerous adventures. He described the deceased as someone who was living in two worlds, one with a relatively safe family, and one in which she wanted her private space and was looking for strange adventures.
He said based on the emails, Hugo came to Jamaica last October and had sex with the deceased and could have been back several other times even during the time when Mrs. Gooden disappeared.
Lord Gifford asked the jury to consider whether Hugo was a predator who was angry about Ingrid talking about a soldier in her emails. He said to this day no attempt had been made by the police to find Hugo.
Lord Gifford said the fact that Gooden had admitted lying did not make him a murderer. Gooden, he said, gave plausible reasons why he lied. He said for Gooden to leave the apartment at 1l.30 p.m. on Thursday night and returned minutes after midnight he would have had to have driven like a maniac to get to where the body was found. Mr. Pantry will continue to address the jury when the trial resumes today.
