TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: THE SENTENCE IS DEATH BY HANGING

The death sentence was read out to Daniel Agard, 29, who was convicted in Trinidad and Tobago of the 2001 murders of agricultural consultant John Cropper, 59, his mother-in-law Maggie Lee, 68, and sister-in-law Lynette Lithgow-Pearson, 57. Agard stood in silence in the First Criminal Court at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain with his arms crossed before him, as Justice Prakash Moosai read out aloud the court’s sentence after Agard was found guilty of the murders, by a 12 member jury which took 183 minutes to deliberate on a verdict.
Agard of Upper Bushe Street, Maitagual in San Juan, was charged with the triple murders which took place at Cropper’s Mt Anne Drive, Second Avenue Cascade, home some time between December 11 and 12, 2001. The bodies of the three were only found at the home on December 13. All three had been bound and gagged and their throats slit.
This was the second time Agard went on trial for the triple murder. On July 14, 2004, Agard was sentenced to death alongside Lester Pitman by then Justice Herbert Volney, for the murders of Cropper and his relatives.
However, the two men appealed the decision and the Court of Appeal dismissed Pitman’s appeal on April 15, 2005, but ordered a retrial for Agard.
Pitman was eventually granted leave in July 2006 to appeal to the Privy Council after the Law Lords received a report that he was not mentally competent to make or sign a confession which he allegedly gave to the police.