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THE path is now clear for nine men once accused of murdering businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman to collect a combined total of close to $20 million from the State, after the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council shut down the Attorney General’s final bid to challenge the award.

In refusing special leave to appeal, on February 26, the London-based court effectively brought to an end the State’s attempts to overturn a default judgment first entered in the High Court and later reinstated by the Court of Appeal.

The nine men—Shervon Peters, Devon Peters, Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, Keida Garcia, Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimmingham and Antonio Charles—were charged with murder in 2007, months after Naipaul-Coolman was kidnapped from her Lange Park home in December 2006.