Corentyne businessman, 2 others found guilty of murdering CWC trader

A Corentyne businessman and two of his employees were on Tuesday found guilty of murdering a Crabwood Creek (CWC) trader after a three-week long trial at the Berbice High Court.
The jury found that Dennis Veerasammy and two of his employeees, Basheer Harrinauth and Delroy Fraser, shot and killed Shameer Ali Mursalin on October 24, 2015, at his Crabwood Creek home.
The matter was heard before Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall while the State was represented by Tuanna Hardy. Attorney-at-Law Brandon DeSantos represented Veerasammy while Attorney-at-Law Chandra Sohan represented Harrinauth and Fraser.
The prosecution’s case was that Veerasammy and Mursalin had an ongoing feud and on the day in question, Mursalin’s lifeless body was discovered by his sister lying in a pool of blood.
The State presented 11 witnesses to prove its case with the key witness, Ricky Profit, relating that he witnessed the execution-style killing.
However, his evidence had come up for scrutiny after the defence pointed out that Profit did not give the Police a statement until April 2016, which was six months after the murder took place. If fact, after Police arrested Veerasammy in October 2015, Profit went into hiding.

Profit subsequently visited the Police headquarters and gave a statement which led to the arrest of Harrinauth and Fraser.
The prosecution also presented statements to suggest that both Harrinauth and Fraser implicated each other. Nevertheless, the trial Judge advised the jury not to consider those statements after the officers who presented them gave their evidence and were questioned by the defence.
The jury was to determine whether Profit’s evidence could be relied on.
Throughout the trial, the trio maintained their innocence stating that they never gave statements to the Police and also claimed that they had alibies at the time of the shooting.
Following the unanimous decision of the jury, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall ordered probation reports for all three convicts. They are expected to return to court on June 2 for sentencing.