Maureen Moore said all she could do was cry when she realised that a woman who was supposed to be her friend stole $9 000 she handed over to buy lumber to build a house 17 years ago.
“That is money that I work and save, Sir,” she told the High Court on Tuesday as she gave evidence in the theft case against Crab Hill, St Lucy resident Rosita Gillette Auguste who has denied stealing the money from her between May 17 and 23, 2005.
Under questioning by state prosecutor Romario Straker, Moore told Supreme Court No. 5a that she has known the accused by the name Juliette Auguste for “about 27 years now”.
“Me and she was friends,” testified Moore who disclosed to the court that she could neither read nor write. “So I duh want a house. I ask she if she could get some lumber for me . . . . I didn’t know how to go about [getting] this lumber and she said ‘yes’. She say de lumber was coming from overseas and she know somebody that would get the lumber . . . but I would have to get de money for she.”
Moore said she went to a bank in Speightstown and while Auguste waited outside, she withdrew $6 000 which she handed over to her when she exited the financial institution.
She said Weekes came back to her on another occasion and said the money was insufficient.
“So I went back and draw $2 000 more and give it to her,” Moore told Justice Christopher Birch and a nine-member jury, adding that when Auguste returned yet again, saying the money was not enough, she withdrew and gave her another $1 000.
However, she said, she never received the lumber.
“Sir, I asked she what she doing with all this money. All I could do was cry, Sir, I couldn’t do no more . . . because she was carrying way de money from me,” continued Moore.
Under cross-examination by Auguste’s attorneys Faith Greaves and Simon Clarke, the complainant said she gave police a statement on the matter but she could not remember anything “because my head wasn’t there . . . . She [Auguste] had my head confused”.
Asked whether she told police the money was from vacation pay she had received from her employer, Moore stated: “That is money that I work and save . . . outta the field. That’s money that I saved.”
She was adamant that she had a conversation with Auguste about lumber and that she gave her money, but acknowledged there were no witnesses to their dealings.
“She never gave me a receipt. I ain’t know what duh going on so I can’t ask for a receipt,” Moore.
Her son, Dennis Moore, who was also a witness for the state, disclosed that he dealt with all his mother’s documents as she could not read or write “too good”.
“I write up a bank withdrawal slip for $6 000 . . . on May 17, 2005,” he testified, adding that the money was to purchase lumber.
However, when questioned by defence counsel, he admitted that he was not present when his mother made the withdrawal, and that he could not say whether she actually withdrew the money or what she had done with it.
Another witness, retired Detective Constable Wendel Walkes, told the court that he was the lead investigator in the case and started his investigations following a report made by Moore on November 16, 2006.
He said he and another officer Wingrove Headley went to Auguste’s residence on January 27, 2007 and she went with them to the Holetown Police Station.
When told of her rights, he said Auguste stated that she did not want an attorney.
They then told her of the report made by Moore and she replied: “She ain’t give me no money to buy no lumber.”
The accused, alias Chim, who was 40 years old at the time of the alleged offence, also agreed to give a written statement, saying: “I gine give you one ‘cause I ain’t do nothing wrong. She ain’t got no receipt or nothing.”
Auguste then dictated a statement in which she said that sometime in 2005, she went to Speightstown with Moore who at one point stopped to talk with “a big red woman”.
“She and the woman walked and . . . went in the bank . . . stan’ in the bank a little while. She then come back out and say, ‘Juliette, I ready’,” Auguste told police, adding that the two walked up the street and Moore then crossed the road and went to a woman.
“She and this woman hug and shake hands. Maureen then juck she hand in her pocket and give the lady something,” the statement read.
According to the statement, Auguste crossed the road and asked Moore who the woman was.
“She tell me a Guyanese lady who bringing in lumber for she. . . . I never get anything from Maureen,” the accused said in her statement.
Another officer, now deceased, sought information from the bank about withdrawals from Moore’s account.
Walkes said that information showed the complainant withdrew $6 000 on May 17, 2005 and $2 000 on May 22 that same year.
Under cross examination by Clarke, Walkes stated that they did seek to find out about the other woman Auguste spoke about in her statement; however, with “such a vague description, ‘a big red woman’, that led nowhere”.
The retired policeman added that there was no video footage of the alleged encounter from the bank as it “did not occur within the vicinity of the bank”; neither did they find any independent witnesses.
Walkes said that based on his investigations “one sum was given to the accused; it was not given to her in two parts”.
The case continues on Thursday.
