The Guyanese duo going on trial in New York today for a series of insurance scam murders in the US and Guyana are trying to block the inclusion of taped conversations in which they allegedly plot the death of their victims.
In motions to Eastern District Court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., Richard James and Ronald Mallay have moved to exclude all the tapes. On Monday, an attorney for James petitioned to suppress a reference to 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden that was recorded during the government's surveillance of his conversation with an informant. James and Mallay are contending that there is a complete "lack of relevance" to issues of the charge and admission of the reference "substantially outweighs" any marginal cumulative assistance to the case.
James, 46, and Mallay, 61, could face the death penalty if convicted on the federal murder charges for the deaths of four people. Investigators have said the duo may have killed several more people in a scheme to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from life insurance policies the victims never knew about.
According to the government's transcript, James tells a wired informant, Derek Hassan, that, "The mistake that Bin Laden did the other day when he sent a f@#$ing plane at f@#$ing ... Rocka-way, I wanted him to send it at Liberty Avenue from Lefferts to 130."
US District Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf argues that the comment is relevant because it is direct evidence of the scope of the fraud. Further, she submits that the statement provides an insight into his motivation and the ease with which he contemplated the deaths of innocents for his profit.
Mauskopf also observes that in their motions to suppress, the lawyers for the accused claim that if the recordings were played in their entirety the jury would realise that many of the conversations did not concern murder-for-hire; rather, they were related to an immigration practice known as 'backtracking' (illegal migration.) Mauskopf says the government subsequently learnt that their 'backtracking' referred to the acquisition of a life insurance policy already in existence on an old or infirmed in order to profit upon the insured's death.
Mauskopf adds that James' statements in no way endorses the work of Bin Laden or implies any support for terrorism. Instead, she says "it provides direct evidence regarding the ease with which James contemplates the death of innocent insureds for his personal profits. In the instant case, where the defendant will be repeatedly arguing that there was no sinister motive attached to his fraudulently insuring unwitting individuals, this statement will directly address the defense."
But according to James' attorney, Ephraim Savitt, admission of "such highly prejudicial and barely probative" evidence will inject an unfairness in this capital trial in derogation of the defendants' due process protection that cannot be remedied by limiting instructions. Savitt discredits the contention that James would have profited by the wholesale elimination of an entire neighbourhood. In response to the claim that it describes the massive scope of James' scheme, he points out that Alfred Gobin and Hardeo Sewnanan, both of whom died in Guyana, don't fit within the Richmond Hill geographical boundary des-cribed by the government. In particular, he drew attention to the fact that the subject of the James-Hassan tapes, John Narinesingh, purportedly lived in Morningside Heights in Manhattan.
James - a former insurance agent known for hosting a cable television show featuring Guyanese music and dance - and Mallay, an ex-postal worker, have been formally accused in the poisoning and shooting deaths of four people, two in the United States and two in Guyana, since the 1990s.
Court papers allege US$300,000 was collected from the death of Mallay's nephew in Guyana, after he was plied with alcohol and ammonia. The 1993 shooting death of Mallay's brother-in-law also was part of the conspiracy, investigators said.
The MetLife insurance company discovered the scheme after noticing that 21 death claims had been filed from policies written by James within a few years. The rate was about 318% higher than expected and a large number of deaths were violent or under unusual circumstances. MetLife subsequently fired James in July 2000 and notified authorities, who put him under surveillance. In 2002, he was on audiotape trying to pay an informant US$25,000 to kill another victim with a cocktail of alcohol and drugs to collect insurance, court papers said. "The higher the dose, the better," he allegedly told the informant.
Before the plot could be carried out, agents arrested James trying to flee to Guyana with a large amount of cash. Both he and Mallay were ordered held without bail after pleading innocent to federal murder conspiracy charges.