‘I did not kill Dr Vogel’
CLOSING ARGUMENTS are set for today in the trial of the former household helper who, along with her boyfriend, is accused of killing university lecturer Dr Peter Vogel.
The way was cleared yesterday after defence attorneys closed their case.
Yanika Scott, Dr Vogel’s former livein helper, and her boyfriend, Kelvin Downer, are on trial in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston for killing the former lecturer at his home in College Common, St Andrew, on July 18, 2007.
Dr Vogel was found with his hands tied behind his back, his feet bound at the ankles, and a cloth tied around his mouth. Forensic pathologist Dr S.N. Prasad Kadiyala has testified that Vogel was strangled.
Yesterday, the former helper, in her first public comments since she was arrested, expressed regret that she did not go to the police, but insisted that she had no involvement in the death of her boss.
“I regret that I was not strong enough to go to the police,” she told the sevenmember jury that will decide her fate.
Scott, who was giving unsworn statement, acknowledged that she and Downer were at the house. However, she testified that some men entered the room and ordered her not to move. “I was frightened,” she recounted.
The former helper said the men ordered Downer and her from the room through a rear exit. “Kelvin drove and we left the property,” she testified.
According to Scott, she and her boyfriend “came out of the van on Beechwood Avenue and we walked home”.
“I walked home in fear and confusion,” she revealed, insisting that the last time she saw Vogel, he was alive.
Scott said she learnt the following day that Vogel was dead and “became even more afraid”. As a result, she said she packed her personal belongings and took her daughter to live in Montego Bay.