Businessman on trial for attempting to kill neighbour, uncle

Businessman Derek Jaisingh appeared before Justice Sandhill Kissoon on Wednesday in relation to allegations that he fired multiple gunshots at 54-year-old Welton Edwards and his nephew, Sherwin Hamilton, 44, at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara on November 2, 2014.

A 12-member jury was on Wednesday empanelled to hear the High Court case after Jaisingh denied two counts of attempted murder when the indictments were presented at his arraignment.
The account of Edwards and Hamilton was that they sought to enquire from Jaisingh why he assaulted Sherwin’s brother, Raymond Hamilton, allegedly using on chair on the night of November 2, 2014. Sherwin Hamilton claimed that when they approached Jaisingh, he drew a firearm and later assaulted him with his weapon before firing shots at him and his uncle.
Hamilton was shot nine times while Edwards was shot twice, and the duo was hospitalised for several days. According to reports in 2014, Jaisingh claimed that he defended himself after believing that the men were attempting to rob him.
Under cross-examination by the businessman’s Attorney, Nigel Hughes on Wednesday, Raymond Hamilton denied that he was “cooking up” a story when he said Jaisingh beat him with a chair, which led him to contact his relatives who were eventually shot. He earlier told the court that they had no problems with Jaisingh prior to the incident and that they had known the accused from seeing him in the village of Land of Canaan.
Raymond, who is a minibus conductor recalled that on the night of the incident, he and Jaisingh had a fight sometime after 22:00h when he was on his way to purchase beer at a Chinese restaurant. He said after he was assaulted with the chair, he screamed for help as Jaisingh was on top of him. He added that sometime after, the accused and his brother “had a talking” and he escaped because he was scared.
Hamilton said he heard gunshots roughly 30 minutes later and after he came out to see what was happening, he saw Welton Edwards lying on the public road in a pool of blood. His brother, Sherwin, called “Nasty Man” told the jury that he was sleeping in his shop at Land of Canaan when he heard screaming outside. He said he climbed up and looked out of his window and then realised that the screams were that of his brother’s.
“I went over the road and I saw this man sitting on my brother hitting him with a gun. I went out and pull off my brother by holding [Jaisingh] on his shoulder. After that, he get up and snatch my jersey and dealt a lash to me with his gun to my head,” he said.
It was after this that Sherwin Hamilton went and called his uncle, Welton to the scene. In court, he identified Jaisingh as the attacker. Prosecutors Orinthia Schmidt and Lisa Cave are presenting the State’s case.