Amy Emily Annamunthodo - Online Memorial Website

Six years after four-year-old Amy Emily Annamunthodo was tortured and beaten to death, her stepfather Marlon King was sentenced yesterday to hang for murdering her. After two hours of deliberation the jury accepted the State’s evidence that King, 39, burned the child with cigarettes, hung her from her hair and beat her until her heart ruptured. In a last-ditch attempted to prove his innocence King interjected before the forewoman gave the verdict but was silenced by Justice Anthony Carmona.

After the verdict King was asked if he had anything to say as to why he should not be sentenced. Referring to the evidence of Dr Chris Pulchan, who said the child arrived dead at the hospital and rigor mortis had already set in, King said: is what set that child in rigor mortis in less than two hours.” Neither Amy’s mother, Anita, or her father, Jason Walker, were in court for the entire trial which began last September in the San Fernando First Assizes. The judge took six days to sum up the case. King was charged with killing the child, who was 33 pounds, unable to speak properly and under-developed, on May 15, 2006 at his Ste Madeleine Road, Marabella, home. King had shared a common-law relationship with the child’s mother for two-and-a-half years.

Justice Anthony Carmona yesterday warned the jury not to speculate that four-year-old Amy Emily Annamunthodo was sexually abused because semen from two different men was found on her vest. In the fourth day of summing up, Carmona reviewed the evidence of forensic expert Emmanuel Walker who found semen on Amy’s vest after conducting tests on her clothing at the Forensic Science Centre, Port of Spain.

Carmona, however, reminded the jury in San Fernando First Assizes that the semen did not match the DNA of Amy’s stepfather Marlon King. “Do not say because semen was found there (on her vest) that she was sexually abused. Do not speculate,” the judge said.

To give a possible explanation for the semen, the judge said, the State led evidence from King’s ex-wife Lou-Ann Davis. She claimed King told her that he would lend out his house to his friends to have sex. He recalled her evidence that on weekends when she went to drop off their two daughters at his house she would see different people there.

The judge continued: “You are big people, you are aware of the affairs of men and women in the bedroom. You are quite aware of what happens in the heat of the moment. “Under no circumstances must you view this aspect of the evidence as reprehensible conduct. It is not. It all has to do with the country you live in. The reality is that friends accommodate friends in Trinidad and Tobago.”

In King’s interviews with the police subsequent to the child’s death he did not mention that Anthony Rocke had visited him, the judge said, adding, “Is this something the accused would genuinely forget because of the trauma or shock. Was he confused?” Rocke said he saw King punching the half naked child while she hung from her hair at his Marabella home on May 15, 2006.

Amy was pronounced dead on arrival to the San Fernando General Hospital that night. Camona said while none of the (three) interviews “really incriminate” King, there were inconsistencies and the jury will have to determine where the truth lies. Carmona had expected to complete summing up yesterday but they experienced some unforeseen hiccups including the late arrival of the prison van. The matter will continue today.

Medical notes made by the doctor who examined and pronounced four-year-old Amy Emily Annamunthodo dead have disappeared from San Fernando General Hospital. Dr Krishna Pulchan revealed this yesterday when he gave evidence in San Fernando First Assizes where Amy’s stepfather, Marlon King, 38, is on trial for her murder. Pulchan, who was then acting registrar of the hospital’s Emergency Department, said he conducted a head- to-toe examination of the child’s body and found it almost entirely covered with injuries. He said, however, that he could not remember if he put an age to the injuries and was unable to refer to his hospital notes.

“I have asked the medical clerical staff to source the notes and they cannot find it,” Pulchan told Justice Anthony Carmona. “I would have had it when I gave evidence at the magistrates court.” He said at around 9.30 pm on May 15, 2006, Amy’s mother brought her into the Emergency Department. The child was unresponsive and unconscious, he said, adding that the cardiac monitor showed a flat line, while the blood pressure and oxygen saturation readings were unrecordable. “Resuscitation was not attempted...The child was deemed to be dead on arrival,” he said, adding that the child was in full rigor mortis. Pulchan said his findings were that the child was dead. He said there were multiple bruises to the body and cigarette burns to the chest, abdomen, back and genitals.

He said he unable to itemise each and every injury on the child’s body because “the patient had extensive injuries throughout the body. It would be extremely difficult and time-consuming to document all the injuries.” Under cross-examination by attorney El Farouk Hosein, Pulchan said his initial examination revealed evidence of foul play. He said he was unable to remember the age of the bruises on Amy’s body, but did remember they were at various stages of healing. In answer to questions from state attorney Maureciea Joseph, Pulchan said what he meant by some of the injuries being “new” was that they were inflicted within 24 hours. In answer to Hosein, however, he said that in the magistrates’ court he had said “new” meant the injuries had been inflicted within two weeks. The state is expected to call its final two witnesses, forensic scientific officers, today.