Slain Orderick’s mom grilled over her whereabouts
DAVIDENE Lucas, mother of slain toddler Orderick, denied that she had her son in her care on the day he is said to have disappeared.
Lucas was recalled to court yesterday as the State reopened its case in the murder trial against Melvin Volkwyn, to test evidence brought by defence witnesses Locrisia Goliath and Betty Cloete.
Yesterday, State prosecutor Mornay Julies officially applied to reopen the case for the sole purpose of clarifying new evidence brought about by the defence's case.
It was Goliath and Cloete's version that Lucas was last seen carrying Orderick
on her back, wrapped in a blanket, when she visited a tuck shop at the premises of the witnesses.
The two testified that Lucas had been at the shop with a towel wrapped around her head, used to bandage an injury she sustained during a physical confrontation against an angry mob relating to a stolen cellphone.
However, Lucas rubbished these allegations saying that she had been at home. Asked about her whereabouts on the evening of March 25, 2019, Lucas said she was at home where she fell asleep until the next morning, when she had to go to work.
According to Lucas, she had not been at the tuck shop with Orderick that day and denied having been asked by Goliath or Cloete about the towel she had wrapped around her head.
During cross-examination, defence attorney Susan Kuun asked Lucas why Cloete would tell the court she was at the tuck shop on the Monday evening.
“I don't know why she would, at this late stage, bring evidence that I was at the tuck shop to ask for a Kimbie (nappy). If she knew I was there, why didn't she testify about it before? They should have said from day one at the police station that they saw me with the child,” said Lucas.
Kuun submitted that the reason why the two witnesses said they saw Lucas was because they had seen her with the white cloth around her head after attending hospital earlier that day.