57 of 114 cases concluded in June Demerara Assizes

…21 guilty pleas, convictions recorded

Some 57 out of the 114 matters before the June Demerara Criminal Assizes were disposed of, with 40 of the matters being presented to the High Court and 17 being dismissed nolle prosequi by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Of the 40 matters 17 were for murder, seven were for sexual offences, seven for attempt to commit murder with alternative counts of felonious wounding, five were for manslaughter, and one each for wounding with intent, accessory after the fact to murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and Possession of Narcotics for the Purpose of Trafficking. There were a total of 43 accused in relation to these matters.

Of the verdicts there were five convictions, 16 guilty pleas, 10 formal verdicts of not guilty, nine verdicts of not guilty by jury and one aborted trial. In the discontinued trial, the trial was aborted after the number one pleaded guilty then changed his plea to not guilty. The judge aborted the trial on the basis that the jurors would have been prejudiced against the three others since the number one had pleaded guilty from the inception, but his defence failed to indicate this to the Court.

The cases were heard before Justice Peter Hugh, Justice Sherdel lsaacs-Marcus, Justice Simone Morris, Justice Damone Young, Justice Zamilla Ally-Seepaul and Justice Priscilla Chandra-Hanif. Justice Hugh heard four matters, Justice lsaacs- Marcus heard two, Justice Morris heard 13 matters, Justice Ally-Seepaul heard seven matters, while Justice Chandra-Hanif heard nine matters. Presiding in the Sexual Offences Court Justice Young heard five matters. The matters before Justice Hugh included one each for the offences of murder, attempt to commit murder, manslaughter, sexual offence. In the case for murder, the State witnesses declined to testify against the accused, leading the Judge to directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. In the manslaughter case, the trial judge again upheld a no case submission, and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.

In the other two matters the accused were both acquitted after unanimous not guilty verdicts. State Counsel Praneta Seeraj, Marissa Edwards and Mtumika Lumumba prosecuted the two matters before Justice lsaacs- Marcus. One case involved a wounding with intent offence and saw the accused being acquitted by a jury. In the other case, for an offence of manslaughter, the trial judge upheld a no case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. Saygon and Lumumba along with Senior State Counsel Mohamed Ali, State Counsel Rbina Christmas, State Counsel Alvaro Ramotar, State Counsel Geneva Wills, and State Counsel Padma Dubraj completed the 13 matters before Justice Morris, of which seven were for murder, including the case that was aborted.

In one of murder case involving two accused, the judge upheld no case submissions and directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty. In two of the cases the juries returned unanimous verdicts of not guilty. Of the remaining three murder cases, one saw the accused being found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with parole after 25 years. In the other two, one accused pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment, while the other accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 19 years. The other cases that Justice Morris presided over included one offence each for rape of A Child under 16 Years, accessory after the fact to murder, manslaughter, attempt to Commit Murder with an alternative count of Wounding with intent, conspiracy to Commit Murder, robbery with Attempt to Commit Murder. The accused in the rape of a child under 16, and manslaughter cases were both found unanimously guilty by jury and respectively sentenced to 19 years and 15 years imprisonment. The Court ordered that the convicts undergo counselling and anger management training while in prison. In the matter of the accessory after the fact to murder, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, of which he must serve a minimum of four years before being eligible for parole. The accused for the offence of attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of wounding with intent, pleaded guilty to the alternative count and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. He was also ordered to undergo anger management while incarcerated. In the matter for the offence of conspiracy to commit murder, the judge held a no case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. The accused in the matter for the offence of robbery, attempted murder and felonious wounding, was found unanimously guilty by jury on the count for attempted murder. His sentence has been deferred. Of the seven matters before Justice Ally-Seepaul four were murders, two attempt to commit murder with on alternative count of wounding with intent and one for the offence of manslaughter.

In two of the murder trials, the accused pleaded guilty and were respectively sentenced to 20 years and 25 years imprisonment. Two others pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, and were sentenced to 16 years and 8 months and 16 years imprisonment, respectively. For one of the attempts to commit murder with an alternative count of wounding with intent, the accused pleaded guilty to the alternative count and was sentenced to one year and eight months after the Court made deductions for the time spent on remand. The other one was acquitted by a jury verdict on both counts. In the manslaughter case, the Judge upheld a no case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
In the five murder trials before Justice Chandra-Hanif the accused all pleaded guilty. Two of them pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter; one was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and the other to eight years and three months, after the Court made deductions in both cases. Of the three others, two of them were respectively sentenced to 11 years and six months and 21 years and six months, after the Court made deductions for their guilty pleas. One accused will be sentenced on October 27. Justice Chandra-Hanif also presided over two matters for attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of felonious wounding, one matter for manslaughter and one for the possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking. In one of the two matters for attempt to commit murder with alternative counts of felonious wounding, the accused was found not guilty by unanimous jury verdicts of not guilty. The other accused pleaded guilty to the alternative count and will be sentenced during the October Assizes. In the one trial for Possession of Narcotics for the Purpose of Trafficking, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty for the accused. He will be sentenced on November 14. Five other matters in the Sexual Offences Court, one accused pleaded guilty to the offence of rape of a child under 16 Years and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. In another two matters, the accused were both acquitted by jury verdicts. In the other two matters the complainants testified in Court of no longer wishing to proceed with their matters.