23 matters completed at Berbice, Essequibo Criminal Assizes

The Berbice June Criminal Assizes ended last month with State Counsel Mohamed Ali completing 12 matters. Ten of these matters were before Justice Simone Morris-Ramall, who had first sat from the February Assizes, and the remaining two were done before Justice Sandil Kissoon.
Of the 10 matters prosecuted before Justice Morris-Ramlall, five were for the offence of murder and the other five were for the offences of attempted murder, manslaughter, inflicting grievous bodily harm, and various sexual offences.
ln one of the five murder cases, three accused were indicted together.
While one of them pleaded guilty as charged and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 25 years, the trial Judge upheld no case submissions for his two co-accused and directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
In the other three matters, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and were respectively sentenced to four years, 20 years, and 12 years’ imprisonment.
ln the other matter, the accused pleaded guilty to murder, but the trial Judge aborted the trial and ordered a psychiatric evaluation for him.
Of the five other matters, one was for a sexual offence case; the accused pleaded guilty as charged to four counts: rape, robbery under arms, common assault and burglary, and was sentenced respectively to 20 years, 12 years, six years, and 10 years’ imprisonment.
His sentences will run concurrently.
In another three matters, two were for the offence of attempt to commit murder and one for inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The complainants in these cases testified they did not wish to proceed with the evidence and as such, the trial Judge directed the juries to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
ln the one matter for the offence of manslaughter, the accused was acquitted by a jury verdict of not guilty. The two cases presented before Justice Kissoon were for the offence of murder.
One accused was found guilty by jury verdict and is awaiting sentence.
The other matter remains in progress.
The Berbice June Criminal Assizes will continue until October 16.
Meanwhile, the Essequibo May Criminal Assizes had continued with State Counsel Taneisha Saygon completing 11 matters. Of these, seven were completed before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow; four for the offence of murder and three for sexual offences.
The four accused in the murder matters pleaded guilty; one of them pleaded guilty as charged and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The other three pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and were respectively sentenced to two years and 11 months, 16 years and six months, and 10 years’ imprisonment.
ln one of the three sexual offences matters, the accused was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 17 years.
ln the other two matters, both accused were acquitted by jury verdicts.
Four matters were presented for the offences of rape of a child under 16 years, manslaughter, attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of felonious wounding before Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, who sat from July.
Of these four matters, one was for the offence of rape of a child under 16. The accused, who was indicted on four counts, was acquitted by the jury on all four counts.
There were two cases for the offence of manslaughter; in one, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. The other matter is in progress.
ln the one matter for the offence of attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of felonious wounding, the accused was found guilty by a majority jury verdict.
His sentence is deferred to November.
The Essequibo May Assizes continues on October 23. The Berbice October Criminal Assizes with 104 cases listed to be heard will commence on October 17.
The Essequibo October Criminal Assizes will commence on October 24. (G1)