Thirty-year-old George Hope of Freeman Street, East La Penitence, Georgetown, who had been on trial for the 2018 murder of moneychanger Sean Nurse, has been found not guilty.
A Demerara High Court jury acquitted him on Monday, after deliberating for some two hours.
George Hope
Hope’s acquittal comes five days after his co-accused Kerwin Dos Santos, 30, also of Freeman Street, East La Penitence, Georgetown, was freed after a no-case submission was upheld.
Both Hope and Dos Santos were represented by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes.
Attorneys-at-Law Marisa Edwards, Tanesha Saigon, Abiola Lowe, and Delon Fraser were the prosecutors and they have given oral notice of the State’s intentions to appeal the acquittals.
Nurse, called “Fabulous”, a 47-year-old father of three, was murdered on February 4, 2018, in the county of Demerara, during the course or furtherance of a robbery.
“I am innocent”
Last Thursday, Hope was called upon to lead a defence.
In so doing, the former murder accused, on the advice of his lawyer, Hughes, elected to give an unsworn statement via Zoom from prison. He told the court of his alibi.
Kerwin Dos Santos
According to him, two days after Nurse was killed, he was at the mother of his child’s home, when his cousin called and told him that the Police were at his home looking for him.
He said he eventually went to the Brickdam Police Station, where a Police detective began questioning him about his whereabouts on February 4, 2018.
Hope said that when he told the policeman that he was at home on that day, the rank showed him video footage of his motorcycle. Hope stated that he told the policeman that February 3, 2014, was the last time he rode the motorcycle.
He claimed that he was taken into a room with about five other Police ranks, and while in there, he saw Dos Santos, his co-accused, crying. Sometime after, he said, a policeman give him a paper that had words on it to sign, and he complied because he did not want the Police to torture him like they tortured another man who was arrested in relation to the murder.
Hope also related that he dropped out of school in Grade Seven, and as such, he cannot read and write. During his testimony, he maintained that he was at home with his six-month-old son at the time of the robbery/murder, stating: “I am innocent of this crime. I don’t know about this crime.”
Dead: Sean Nurse, called “Fabulous”
The prosecution had contended that Hope conspired with others to rob the moneychanger and that he lent his accomplices his motorcycle to commit the crime.
A caution statement was the only evidence the prosecution had against Hope and this statement was admitted to form part of the evidence by the trial Judge.
Murder
Nurse, a well-known moneychanger of Lot 33 Shopping Plaza, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was sitting in a chair at the corner of Avenue of the Republic and America Street in Georgetown when he was approached by a man armed with a handgun.
The man demanded that Nurse hand over a bag containing an undisclosed sum of local and foreign currencies. Nurse, 47, resisted, and in retaliation, the bandit pulled the trigger, shooting him once in his head. He collapsed, and died almost immediately.
The alleged culprit then escaped on foot, proceeding north on Avenue of the Republic and then east into Charlotte Street.
Police Headquarters had said that a 9mm spent shell was found at the scene, and that several persons were questioned as to the description of the shooter. Reports stated that the man who shot and killed Nurse was clad in a red hoodie and a pair of brown trousers.
Dos Santos and Hope were initially charged with Nurse’s murder in 2018.
The following year, they were committed to stand trial at the High Court, after a city Magistrate, after a Preliminary Inquiry (PI), ruled that there was sufficient evidence against them.
However, a third man, Kacey Heyliger, who had been jointly charged with them, was discharged after the Magistrate found that there was insufficient evidence to commit him to stand trial.
