Alleged Serial Killer Gracious David West: Court Fixes July 29, For Adoption Of Written Address
A Port-Harcourt High Court presided by Honourable Justice Adolphus Enebeli has fixed July 29 for adoption of final written address in the murder case against alleged serial killer, Gracious David West.
The presiding judge announced the date after defence for the second defendant had closed his case on Wednesday.
The case was stalled following the closure of courts in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
The second defendant, Nimi ThankGod, faces a one-count charge of misconduct with corpse and has since pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Her counsel, Lezina Amegua, told reporters on Wednesday he had closed his case.
Amegua said: “We intend not to continue with further witnesses but to close our defence altogether and that is what we’ve just done and the court has also taken that into consideration”.
Prosecuting counsel in the case and principal state counsel, Chidi Ekeh, had said in interview after the sitting that the trial ended with the defence having closed their case.
The presiding judge is expected to announce a date for judgement after the adoption of final written address.
The prosecuting and defence counsels will use final written address as final legal argument in the case.
The first accused, Gracious David West, is facing prosecution over alleged murder of women in hotels in Port-Harcourt and other cities and faces nine counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder and not guilty to one count of attempted murder and then retracted and said he was not guilty of the charges.
At one trial, the accused serial killer denied footage showing him in hotel premises.
The footage was played by the prosecution in court on March 23 showing the accused serial killer and one of his victims in a hotel premises in Port- Harcourt.
After the video was played, the prosecution asked if he was not the one in the video but the accused serial killer denied he was the one, claiming that the video was unclear.
He also denied killing any woman and taking any woman to hotel.
The case was to have resumed on March 27 but there was directive that courts were to close because of coronavirus.
The accused serial killer had said at a trial on February 28 that he had nothing to apologize for saying that he had no hand in the death of the women.
He also alleged that he was forced by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to go to hotels he was taken to saying he never took any SARS operatives to any hotel.
