Duo to stand High Court trial for murder of Henry cousins

Vinod Gopaul, called “Magga”, 34, of Yakusari, Black Bush Polder; and Anil Sancharra also called “Dan Pole” and “Rasta”, 33, of D’Edward Village, WCB, appeared before Magistrate Peter Hugh at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with the murder of Isaiah and Joel Henry.

During their appearance, the Magistrate ruled that a sufficient case was made out against the duo by Police Legal Advisor Mandel Moore and as such, they were committed to stand trial at the next convenient sitting at the Berbice Assizes.
Gopaul and Sancharra were jointly charged and remanded to prison on Friday, January 15, 2021, for the murders of the two teens in the Cotton Tree Backdam, West Coast Berbice.
The cousins were found murdered one day after they went to pick coconuts in the No 3 Village backdam.

A post-mortem showed that the teenagers died from haemorrhage and shock, due to multiple incised wounds. They both sustained a severed spine, along with multiple chops about the body. The killers went so far as to carve out a huge “X” on Isaiah’s head, and cut open Joel’s chest.
The main witness is 21-year-old Akash Singh called “Monkey” – the younger brother Sancharra.
He had testified that he went to the backdam with his brother (Anil) and friend (Vinod) and observed that their weed (marijuana) farm was sprayed down. They slept there in the backdam that night and the following morning when he woke up, he saw the two accused (Anil and Vinod) and the two teenagers sitting together.
According to the witness, Vinod was the accused that told the two teenagers about their weed farm being sprayed down and the teenagers started to laugh.
Vinod then told them, “I talking about the weed farm spray down and y’all laughing, like y’all know something what going on. Y’all gotta start feel pain…”
The witness said one of the deceased tried to get up and Vinod chopped him to his neck with a cutlass while Sancharra started to chop the other deceased.
The witness testified that he started to see blood spilling profusely from the two cousins and then one of the accused told him in a threatening manner, that he “gah do something to”.
The witness related that he was instructed to “put the X” on the head of one of the Henry boys. The witness said he took the cutlass and put an “X” on the forehead of Isaiah Henry.
However, during the Preliminary Inquiry (PI), the witness was easily able to identify the two suspects – one is his brother and the other is his brother’s friend who would visit their home.
Singh testified twice in 2021, the first time on November 8, 2021, which was via Zoom, and then on November 30, 2021, at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court, where he was cross-examined by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd.
This was the crucial evidence that Mandel Moore and his team relied on, and the witness maintained the story when cross-examined by Todd.
In addition, Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh was the second witness to give evidence in court. Singh testified on December 7, 2021, at Blairmont Magistrate’s Court, where he tendered the two post-mortem reports for the Henry boys.
The reports noted that both of the deceased had several incised wounds on their bodies.
When questioned whether the wounds could have been caused by a cutlass, Dr Singh responded in the affirmative, which supports the testimony given by Akash Singh that the duo was chopped several times.
Back in July 2021, Magistrate Peter Hugh had discharged the murder charges against Sancharra and Gopaul for the murder of 16-year-old Isaiah Henry.
In discharging the charges, Magistrate Hugh agreed with the submissions by Defence Attorney Dexter Todd who argued that the State has not produced any admissible evidence of murder against the duo.
Nevertheless, a PI was recommended which proved that there was enough evidence to send the matter to the High Court for trial.
On September 6, 2020, the badly mutilated bodies of Isaiah and Joel were found in the backlands of Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice – almost two days after they had left their Number Three Village, WCB home to pick coconuts.
The murders of the Henry cousins had sparked protests across several villages along the West Coast Berbice corridor, where commuters were beaten and robbed. With roads blocked, some vehicles were also torched.
Then days later, on September 9, 17-year-old Haresh Singh was found murdered at the Number Three Village backlands. It is suspected that his death was in retaliation for the murders of Isaiah and Joel, since he is related to one of the persons initially held by the Police for the cousins’ murders.
According to the confession from Singh, the Henry cousins’ murders stemmed from a destroyed ganja farm in the West Berbice backlands.