MARLON KING has successfully argued an appeal against his conviction for the brutal murder of his four-year-old stepdaughter Amy Emily Annamunthodo in 2006.
A three-member Court of Appeal panel on Tuesday, found several faults with his trial judge’s handling of his case in 2012.
A retrial is being considered and a decision will be given on July 29 as the judges await further submissions and information from the attorneys representing King and the State on the issue.
King was sentenced to hang for Annamunthodo’s murder after he was convicted by a jury following six days of directions by then Justice Anthony Carmona.
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.
Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Malcolm Holdip presided over King’s appeal and in a joint decision, quashed his conviction and the death sentence.
At Tuesday’s hearing, they invited submissions on a retrial at a virtual hearing King attended from the Port of Spain prison.
He was represented by attorneys Peter Carter and public defender Delicia Helwig-Robertson. The State was represented by special prosecutor, Travers Sinanan.
Sinanan said while the doctors who testified at the trial would still be available, he would have to make inquiries on the main civilian witnesses' availability.
Carter spoke of the length of time it took for matters to be retried, while pointing out that King has been in the condemned section of the prison for nine years.
In his submissions at the hearing of the appeal in January, Carter had 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.
Rocke was accused of lying about having witnessed the crime and his act was done in revenge as he had accused Anita of stealing his sim card from his mobile phone.
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
