The prime suspect in the case involving the execution of Courtney Crum-Ewing, Regan “Grey Boy” Rodrigues, was rearrested on Friday, weeks after the Director of Public Prosecutions had ordered that the case be reopened.
Rodrigues, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for escaping from lawful custody, had appealed the case and was granted bail. He had been in hiding since the DPP reopened the case, but following a tip-off received, police swooped down on a house at Middle Road, La Penitence, Georgetown and arrested the suspect.
Regan “Grey Boy” Rodrigues
The accused was charged for the March 2015 murder of Crum-Ewing, but was subsequently acquitted. The matter was previously heard before Magistrate Judy Latchman.
On March 17, the DDP Chambers noted: “The sole purpose of this remit is to take further evidence from police witnesses and to rule on the voluntariness of all oral statements of the accused.”
Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes has been retained by the state as special prosecutor in this case.
Courtney Crum-Ewing
Crum-Ewing, a 40-year-old ex-soldier, was gunned down execution style on March 10, 2015, while urging residents of Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, to go out and cast their ballots in the May 11, 2015 General and Regional Elections. An autopsy performed on Crum-Ewing revealed that he had been shot five times. Several months later, Rodrigues, called “Grey Boy,” was arrested and charged after a gun that was found at his home matched the spent shells found at the crime scene where Crum-Ewing was gunned down.
The murder charge against Rodrigues was dismissed in September 2016 after Magistrate Latchman found that no case has been made against Rodrigues. The magistrate found that police had failed to prove that Rodrigues was the one who had pulled the trigger on the night when Crum-Ewing was murdered.
The magistrate had stated that there was no evidence which suggested to the court that Rodrigues was the one who had pulled the trigger, and that throughout the case, neither the accused nor the evidence had implicated him in the murder. As such, he was discharged.
However, Rodrigues has been serving a three-year sentence for escaping from lawful custody, which was handed down in January 2016. He has since appealed that sentence. He was also found to be in possession of a Taurus pistol and 14 live rounds of matching ammunition while he was not the holder of a firearm licence.
Nevertheless, he was acquitted of charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition after the prosecution had failed to prove that case as well.
