Car rental owner gives evidence in murder trial

PHUKET: Prayoon Trongpeng, owner of a car and motorbike rental business, appeared in court yesterday morning as a witness in the ongoing trial of two people accused of participation in the murder of Briton Roger Jennings. Mr Jennings died after being stabbed 19 times in his Patong home on December 15, 1997. On trial are his common-law wife, Nongnut Tungkaburi, and Kraisorn Kamnoun. Prayoon, 42, a Patong resident who has run his rental business on Soi Bangla for almost 10 years, said in response to prosecution questions that on the day of the murder, at around 1:30 pm, Nongnut – who operates a bar on Soi Bangla – asked to rent a jeep from him for two days. He recognized Nongnut, he said, because their businesses were close to each other. He rented a jeep to her after she told him that her own car, a BMW, was being cleaned. The following morning he saw the jeep parked in front of Nongnut’s bar. Later in the day, he said, he heard that a foreigner had been murdered in Patong, though he did not know who the foreigner was. Ekapong Aroonrat, for the defense, asked Prayoon how often Nongnut rented cars from him. Prayoon said that she had done so on several occasions. He said he knew Nongnut because her bar was very famous in Patong. He added that sometimes she would ask him to check if cars left outside her bar by inebriated customers had been rented from him. Prompted by Ekapong, he added that he thought Nongnut a nice person and did not think she had been involved in her common-law husband’s murder. The next hearing in the trial is scheduled for November 17, followed by another on November 29.