Accused in murder of ex-soldier freed after judge upholds no-case submission

Rawle Munroe of Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara has been freed by the Demerara High Court on Tuesday after Justice Sandil Kissoon upheld a no-case submission made by defence attorney Teriq Mohammed.
Munroe was charged with the capital offence of murder in relation to the May 26, 2018 death of Edward Beveney, a 23-year-old former soldier and resident of Triumph, ECD.

Led by State Counsel Cecilia Corbin, the prosecution had called several witnesses, including Police ranks, a doctor, and Beveney’s relative, before Defence Attorney Teriq Mohammed made his no-case submission. A submission of no case to answer is usually made at the close of the prosecution’s case, when the defence believes that the prosecution’s case does not support a finding of guilty.
Trial Judge Sandil Kissoon upheld the no-case submission, finding that Munroe acted in self-defence. Accordingly, he directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of Munroe.
Edward Beveney of Ogle Street, Triumph, ECD sustained multiple stab wounds on his body following an altercation with Munroe over a bicycle on May 26, 2018. Reports are that Beveney had visited a shop earlier in the day, and had left his bicycle outside.
When he returned to pick up the bicycle, he was told that Munroe had moved it. As such, Beveney attacked Munroe, chopping him with a cutlass.
In retaliation, Munroe stabbed Beveney several times with an icepick.
Edward Beveney’s aunt Debbie Beveney, 52, while testifying, had said that on the day in question, she arrived at the Ogle Street, Triumph, ECD home she cohabited with her children and niece and nephew, and was doing chores around the home when, at about 07:00h, she heard a “noise” — it was someone shouting for her nephew by his call name “Kester”.
As such, Debbie said, she ran out of the house, and saw a crowd gathered on a bridge and her nephew staggering. He later fell on the ground, she added. According to her, upon examining her nephew, she observed a wound to his chest, and so she called out to him, but got no reply. She then called a taxi and took the injured man to the hospital.
Across the road from where she lived, Debbie recalled, she saw Munroe, whom she did not know prior to the day in question. Munroe, she testified, had an ice pick in his hand, and his body was covered in mud. Convinced he might have been the one who had inflicted the injuries on her nephew Edward, she said, she called out to persons, urging them to apprehend Munroe.
Back at the hospital, she said, her nephew was rushed for treatment, but, a few minutes later, a doctor informed her that “we just lost him”, meaning that he had died.
Under cross-examination by Munroe’s counsel, Debbie admitted that she did not see when Munroe inflicted injuries on her nephew. She also pointed out Munroe, who appeared in court virtually, as the man she had seen holding the ice pick while her nephew was on the ground bleeding.
Also testifying was Detective Police Constable Keon Burgess, who is stationed at the Kwakwani Police Station’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID). According to this witness, at the time of the murder, he was stationed at the Beterverwagting Police Station’s CID, where he performed the duties of a Crime Scene Technician.
At around 08:40h on the day in question, Constable Burgess recounted, he was summoned to the scene of an alleged murder, where he took photographs of a drain and a bridge. He said he also took photographs of the ice pick, and of Beveney’s body while it was at the mortuary. (G1)