Criminal cases backlog reduced by 37 in Demerara

… 223 to be heard in June session

In light of the April 2018 Criminal Assizes in Demerara coming to an end, a total of 37 cases were disposed of, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) disclosed on Friday. The session commenced on April 3 with a total of 242 cases listed to be heard and of the 37 cases that were disposed of, only 23 engaged the court’s attention.
The other 14 were nolle prosequi (not prosecuted) by the Chambers; 13 were for sexual offences in which the complainants did not want to proceed with the matters, while the other was a manslaughter case in which the witnesses failed to attend court despite several advertisements being published for them to come forward.
Nevertheless, courtroom trials resulted in six convictions, five guilty pleas, three formal verdicts of not guilty, five hung juries and four not guilty verdicts by jury. Justices Jo-Ann Barlow, James Bovell-Drakes and Sandil Kissoon presided over this session.
There were 11 sexual offence cases that were presented by State Counsel Narissa Leander, Tiffiny Lyken and Abigail Gibbs before Madam Justice Barlow in the Sexual Offences Court.
In four of these cases, the accused were found guilty by jury verdicts and sentenced respectively to 52 years imprisonment, life imprisonment, 25 years and seven years imprisonment respectively. In another three cases, the virtual complainants testified before Judge and jury that they did not wish to proceed with their matters; Justice Barlow then directed the juries to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
Of the four other cases, one accused was remanded back to prison to await a new trial after his jury failed to reach a verdict, while the accused in the three other cases were acquitted by their respective juries.
Meanwhile, 10 matters were presented before Justice Kissoon. Of these 10 matters, eight were for the offence of murder and were prosecuted by State Counsels Mandel Moore and Lisa Cave. In five of these cases, the accused persons pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter; three of them were each sentenced to 10 years imprisonment while the other two were respectively sentenced to 14 years and 22 years imprisonment.
Of the three other cases, one accused was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment after the jury unanimously found him guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter. Another one was acquitted by his jury, while the remaining matter saw the jury failing to reach a verdict. This hung jury resulted in the indictment being nolle prosequi by the DPP because the accused already had two previous hung jury verdicts – April 2014 and December 2015.
The other two cases presented before Justice Kissoon were for the offence of attempted murder. In one case presented by State Counsels Lisa Cave and Shawnette Austin, the jury returned in proportion of eight not guilty to four guilty. State Counsels Cave and Orinthia Schmidt presented the other case, which resulted in another hung jury with nine guilty and three not guilty.
On the other hand, Justice Bovell-Drakes heard two murder cases; one of which was presented by State Counsels Austin and Seeta Bishundial. The accused in this trial was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment after the jury returned a majority verdict of guilty for the lesser offence of manslaughter. The other case which was prosecuted by State Counsels Moore and Bishundial, the jury failed to reach a verdict and returned hung.
The Demerara June Criminal Assizes commenced on Tuesday June 5, once again with Justices Barlow, Kissoon and Bovell-Drakes. A total of 223 cases have been listed to be heard.
Meanwhile, during the months of January to May, the DPP appeared 22 times in the Guyana Court of Appeal.
Of these 22 matters, three appellants were allowed their appeals and had their convictions and sentences set aside and the charge for murder was substituted with the lesser offence of manslaughter. Of these three, two had their sentences varied to 20 years each while the other one had 12 years imprisonment imposed.
Four other appellants had their appeals allowed in part to appeal against their sentences which varied from 25 years to 18 years, 31 years to 24 years, 24 to 22 years and four years to one year imprisonment.
Four other appellants had their Applications to Appeal against conviction and sentences dismissed. While one other appellant had his appeal against his sentence for causing death by dangerous driving dismissed; however based on the aggravating factors, the Court of Appeal substituted the sentence with a $300,000 fine.
Additionally, there were six applications for bail pending Appeal; of which three were granted while the other three were denied. One matter was struck out because the Court of Appeal ruled it was a matter for the Full Court. Two matters were withdrawn.
In one other matter, the court did not convene because the convict who was sentenced to 76 years imprisonment for the offence of murder and had appealed against his conviction, committed suicide by hanging.
Meanwhile, the Demerara Full Court sat 11 times during the months February to May. The Full Court granted five applications to appeal against convictions and sentences. Four other appellants had their Applications to Appeal dismissed while two Applications to Appeal were withdrawn, one of which was by the State.