Bill Kayong murder trial: Another five witnesses called to testify
MIRI: The hearing of the murder trial of Miri PKR secretary Bill Kayong entered the second day yesterday at the High Court here with another five witnesses called to testify.
They included Bill’s wife Hasyikin Hatta and four others including Manuel Maratis, the first member of the public who informed the police about the incident after sensing something wrong happening with the driver of the Toyota Hilux vehicle with registration number QMU6462.
The others were Mohd Firdaus Mohd Aris, the driver of the police MPV, Mohd Salman Maliki, a medical assistant at Miri Hospital and Enrico Dumaog, a Filipino welder with a local shipyard.
Manuel, 30, a technician with a local company told the court that on the fateful day of June 21, 2016, after finishing work he left the office at 8.15am and upon reaching the traffic light near Emart, Tudan, he saw the vehicle concerned. As he was going to Tudan he stopped on the right side of the Hilux and saw a gunshot mark on the driver’s side of the vehicle.
“When the traffic light turned green, the vehicle did not move. It was then that I sensed something was wrong. I drove to Tudan and I immediately called the police. Then, I made a U-turn to Kuala Baram, made another U-turn back to the scene, stopped my car near the rubbish bin area near the same traffic light to wait for the police’s arrival,” said Manuel, the eighth witness called to testify.
He said the traffic was not heavy at the time of the incident, about 8.45am.
Mohd Salman, 27, the seventh witness, said the examination he conducted at the scene showed that from an external observation the victim was motionless.
“I noticed injury on the right side of the victim’s neck, the face pale and there was no sign of breathing… checked the eyes and they were not responsive to light,” he said, adding the cardio monitor reading was asystole (flatline – no heart beat).
Mohd Firdaus, 36, the sixth witness told the court that after receiving information and instruction around 9am, he and Corporal Sandy Atin went to the scene.
“We made an observation on the vehicle and I saw a crack on the windscreen on the driver’s side. We did not touch the vehicle.”
They then did their normal duties of cordoning off the area.
Enrico, 54, the ninth witness, who testified in his mother tongue, Bisaya, said on the day of the shooting, he, along with two others (known as Ah Chai and Kawan) in a Hilux truck were on their way from their Miri office to Sibu. Upon reaching the Emart/Tudan traffic light, he heard something like a gunshot and saw a crack on the windscreen on the left side of the ( Hilux) vehicle.
Upon cross- examination by counsel Orlando Chua, Enrico said he did not deny the sound he heard could be a bursting tyre as he never heard a gunshot before.
Hasyikin, 42, told the court that on that fateful morning, her husband Bill left the house early, but did not know the exact time, to go to work.
“I heard the news. I was shocked. I did not know what to do when I got the information from my neighbour. I then went straight to the scene of the incident and upon confirming that he was my husband I didn’t know what to do next, I can’t do anything, I only managed to see,” she said, appearing calm when asked to identify the photographs of her husband.
Cross- examined by counsel for the accused, Ranbir Singh, Hasyikin said her late husband never left the house at the same time every morning.
Hasyikin told the court that their marriage of 21 years was a good.
Hearing continues at 9.30am today when a pathologist is scheduled to testify against Mohamad Fitri Pauzi, who is charged together with three others with the murder of Bill at the traffic light intersection near E- Mart Supermarket in Kuala Baram Bypass around 8.20am on June 21, 2016.
Three other locals – Lie Chang Loon, 38, Datuk Stephen Lee Chee Kiang, 46, and Chin Wui Ching, 51 are charged with abetment (abetting Mohd Fitri) – an offence punishable under Section 109 read together with Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
Presiding is Judge Ravintharan Paramaguru while the three public prosecutors are Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz, Hadya Farizal and Wan Mohammad I’zzat Wan Abdullah. The counsels for the four accused are Ranbir Singh, Orlando Chua, Arthur Lee and David Kuok. Simon Siah and Majen Panyog are the watching brief counsels for the victim’s family.