By Saio Marrah
The fourth Prosecution Witness (PW4), Cornelia Tucker who said she is the girlfriend of the slain teacher, Gillis Edwin Ola Johnson, has testified at the Pademba Road Magistrate Court No.1 that she met the deceased dead when she brought his food.
Also a neighbor of the deceased, Tucker testified before Magistrate Mark Ngegba on Thursday 8th June 2023 that she last saw the deceased at around 11 in the morning hours of Saturday when he gave her money to prepare his food.
Ms. Tucker narrated to the court how she used to cook, do laundry and perform other chores for him. After receiving the money for the deceased for the food, she went to the market, and upon her return, she did not check on him until after cooking the food, she told the court.
“After cooking, I went with the food to him. When I reached the veranda, the television’s sound was very high. I knocked several times, but he did not open,” she said.
The witness said she then went to a boy nearby who she said was close to the deceased and played a betting game for him called Mercury.
“I said call his phone for me. He called him three times,the phone kept ringing, but no one answered,” she explained.
She added: “I then sat at the veranda, peeped through the part of the door that has a little opening, and I saw him lying on the ground. I ran back to David.”
She said she became worried.
The witness also said she met another man at a nearby garage called Abdulai, and she explained the issue to him.
After reaching the door, the witness said she told Abdulai to open the door, but that Abdulai passed a stick through the window, touched the deceased’s foot, but he didn’t move.
She also narrated how the boy brought an iron from the garage and opened the door.
“I went in and I saw him with a cut-throat, two red and two blue pens in his throat,” he said.
The witness narrated how she immediately ran to the backyard and informed Mr. Mansaray about it, who then immediately left his shop to the place.
According to her, Mansaray started wailing saying that it is the boy that has killed him.
“I asked him which boy and he told me the one that attended Saturday lessons at the deceased’s place and even said the accused went to him saying he wanted to ease himself,” she narrated.
She said they immediately saw a truck of police at the scene who took a photograph of the corpse and took it away.
During a cross-examination with the lead defence lawyer Teddy Koroma, the witness said she visited the deceased every morning and evening.
Koroma asked the witness if she was aware of the back door also leading to the house, she said yes, but that it was locked.
He also asked the witness if she checked the back door during her first visit to the house before going to David but said she didn’t.
The witness also pointed out that it was only the accused that attended the deceased’s private lesson throughout the two years she had known the slain teacher.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (07/06/23)
