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CONVICTED child-killer Marlon King has asked the Court of Appeal to find fault with his trial judge’s handling of his case in 2012.
He was sentenced to hang for the brutal murder of his four-year-old stepdaughter Amy Emily Annamunthodo.
Annamunthodo was tortured and beaten to death, burned with cigarettes, hung from her hair and beaten until her heart ruptured. King was charged with killing the child – who weighed 33 pounds and was unable to speak properly and under-developed – on May 15, 2006 at his home at Ste Madeleine Road, Marabella.
King was in a common-law relationship with Annamunthodo’s mother, Anita.
Medical evidence was led that Amy was burnt with cigarettes on her vagina, inner thigh and forearm an hour before she died. She suffered multiple internal and external injuries throughout her body, including a broken rib and bruised organs.
He was convicted by a jury after a six-day summation by then Justice Anthony Carmona.
Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Malcolm Holdip presided over King’s appeal and have reserved their decision.
In his submissions, King’s attorney Peter Carter argued that the judge erred significantly when he admitted prejudicial evidence from his client’s ex-wife Lou Ann Davis and his friend and neighbour, Anthony Rocke, whom he accused of actually being responsible for the child’s injuries.
Davis, who was also the mother of King’s two children, had testified about repeated beatings by King before she managed to escape. She also testified that he forced her to perform oral sex on him while waking a one-year-old female relative to watch. She further claimed King told her he would lend out his house to his friends to have sex.
Rocke testified to seeing King punching Amy 20-30 times while she hung from a cloth tied to her hair and attached to a door ledge. She had on underwear and was gagged.
Of Davis’ claim that King rented out his home, Carter said that evidence was presented in a distorted fashion and although it appeared to have been edited in its presentation to the jury, by trying to “take the sting out of it” the judge allowed it to become contaminated and it should not have been allowed to go to the jury.
He said the evidence was hearsay and should not have been allowed since it was used to find reprehensible conduct on King’s part.
Carter also accused Carmona of usurping the function of the jury in his directions on the issue of credibility and said his review of the weaknesses of the State’s case was deficient.
In response to the appeal, special prosecutor Travers Sinanan urged the court not to lose sight of crucial portions of evidence from the medical experts, coupled with what Rocke claimed he saw, and the multiple versions given by King himself.
Dr Chris Pulchan, who examined the child at the San Fernando General Hospital, said she arrived dead and rigor mortis had already set in.
Pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes listed multiple extensive internal and external injuries, including fractured ribs, a busted lip, bruising and bleeding to her head and organs, and cigarette burns about her body, including her genitals.
He said the multiple injuries would have been inflicted on the child within an hour or two before death. He said the injuries to her heart would have resulted in her death in a minimum of 15 minutes but it was likely that she died much sooner.
Des Vignes found burst water blisters on the right side of the lip of the vagina, on the inside of the upper left thigh and the upper right thigh which most likely resulted from burns inflicted within an hour of her death. He said there were also roughly rounded cigarette burns on her lower right forearm and five roundish burns on the chest and upper belly.
Of Rocke’s evidence, Sinanan also asked how the jury could properly assess his credibility without having all the evidence before them, including evidence of his bad character since King alleged it was he who administered the blows to Amy.
He also said Carmona, in plain language, told the jury Rocke had an interest to serve and constantly reminded them that they were entitled to accept, reject or uphold the evidence of the experts, and that it was only for them to assess the truth and the lies in arriving where guilty or innocence lay.
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