drowned by standing on her neck, a jury has heard.

On the opening day of his trial yesterday, Damon Quincy DeRoza, 21, of Cedar Hill, Warwick, pleaded not guilty to the premeditated murder of his daughter Lynae in November last year.

Lynae's naked body was found floating in Hamilton Harbour near Mizzentop by two fishermen on the evening of November 19.

Although a team of doctors and nurses fought valiantly to revive her, she was pronounced dead at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital an hour after being discovered.

Giving evidence yesterday, Det. Con. Terrence Maxwell read out transcripts of a number of interviews that DeRoza gave to Police shortly after being arrested.

Det. Con. Maxwell said that, when questioned, DeRoza told detectives he had thrown his daughter in the water to drown her. He also quoted DeRoza as saying: "I waited for her to come home and then got her jacket and told her I was going to take her to the store and all the while I planned to drown her.

"I drove down to Cambridge Beaches and then went to Harbour Road. I took her clothes off and threw her overboard. In the water she was struggling strongly so I tried to push her under but she got out and she said she was going to tell Grandma and that's when I got nervous.

"I jumped overboard and was standing on her throat. I stood on her neck and was on her back and when the bubbles stopped I took my foot off.'' Det. Con. Maxwell also claimed that DeRoza told Police he had planned to kill his daughter a week earlier but changed his mind at the last moment. He also said he planned to get back at Lynae's mother because she was always demanding money from him and he was not sure if he was Lynae's father.

"I wanted to get her out of my life and her mother was pressurising me,'' DeRoza was reported as saying.

"She was asking for money and another child. I haven't got any money.'' Det. Con. Maxwell also produced a 14-foot-long tree trunk which DeRoza claimed he also used to keep Lynae submerged.

When questioned by defence lawyer Mark Pettingill, Det. Con. Maxwell said DeRoza was being treated for schizophrenia at the time of the killing.

And he also agreed that DeRoza seemed unconcerned that his daughter had died or that he had been arrested.

DeRoza's defence hinges on the argument that he was mentally unbalanced at the time.

Mr. Pettingill said: "The facts of the case put forward by the Crown are admitted in that they don't relate to the sanity of the defendant.'' But Attorney General Elliot Mottley told the jury that the facts proved that DeRoza was a cold-blooded killer.

Setting out the prosecution case, he said: "The evidence will show you that the accused killed Lynae and that on his one admission subsequent to the finding of Lynae's body he admitted to Police that he formed the intention to kill Lynae some days before.

Lynae's last hours recounted to court "There you have the element of premeditation so that will cause you no difficulty whatsoever.'' Also called as a witness by the prosecution was the dead girl's maternal grandmother, Meredith Brown, of Tribe Road No. One, Warwick. Mrs. Brown was looking after Lynae, whose mother was studying in Jamaica at the time.

Recounting the last day she saw her granddaughter alive, Mrs. Brown told how DeRoza had turned up at her house on a motorbike asking to take Lynae out.

When she told him that she did not want Lynae to ride on a bike DeRoza left.

He returned shortly after on foot and offered to take Lynae to a local store to buy candy.

"He came back just after Lynae got home and asked me if he could take Lynae down to the store,'' she said. "I put a warm jacket on her, buttoned her up and watched her walk down the yard. She was holding her father's hand.'' The next time Mrs. Brown saw her granddaughter she was dead.

Another key witness called by the prosecution was Miami pathologist Dr.

Valerie Rao, who performed the post mortem examination on the dead girl.

Mr. Pettingill claimed that, because the facts of the case had already been admitted to, it was unnecessary for Dr. Rao to give evidence.

"What Dr. Rao has to say is more prejudicial than probative,'' he said. "It may only serve to be prejudicial in the sense that this is an upsetting case.'' The objection was overruled by Chief Justice Austin Ward and Dr. Rao took the witness stand.

She confirmed that death had been caused by drowning and that, as well as having a cut mouth and two loose front teeth, Lynae's body was covered in superficial cuts and bruises.

"These are consistent with the evidence that she was pushed underwater,'' she said.

The case continues today.

Lynae Brown Graphic file name: LANAEBRO Damon Quincy DeRoza Graphic file name: LOONTOON