Jury acquits duo charged with attempted murder over shooting of guard

Two men who had been charged with attempted murder over the shooting of a security guard have been cleared of the charge. Last week, a jury unanimously found them not guilty of the crime.
Thirty-two-year-old Kevin France, of East Ruimveldt, Georgetown and 26-year-old Jason Howard, called “Smelly”, of East La Penitence, Georgetown had been on trial for the offence before Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall at the High Court in Demerara. The pair had been accused of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Quacy Joseph with intent to murder him on October 20, 2016 at Water Street, Georgetown.

Upon their arraignment before the presiding Judge on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, they had both pleaded not guilty to the charge, and an alternate count of discharging a loaded firearm with intent had also been presented against them by state prosecutors.
France had been out on $500,000 bail pending the determination of his trial, while Howard had been on remand, since he is still awaiting trial for the capital offence of murder.
Howard was represented by Attorneys Kiswana Jefford and Edrianna Stephens, while France was represented by Attorney George Thomas. State Counsel Muntaz Ali, in association with State Counsel Marisa Edwards and Abiola Lowe, had appeared on behalf of the prosecution.
According to reports, Joseph, a security guard, was shot in his abdomen after he attempted to foil a robbery being committed on a man in the Electronics City branch store located in the Fogarty’s Building on Water Street, Georgetown. That man was eventually relieved of $1.2M.

France, a former murder accused, was previously charged with a series of offences involving armed robbery and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. According to reports, France and another man were found in possession of a gun that had been stolen from Kaieteur News during a robbery in October 2022. In this regard, they have been slapped with charges involving the illegal possession of a firearm.
Meanwhile, Howard and three others are awaiting trial for the murders of Mohamed Munir and his wife Bibi Jamila Munir, a rice-farming couple that had resided at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo. Munir, 75, and his wife, 70, had secured themselves in the bedroom of their heavily grilled house during an attempted invasion by bandits on April 17, 2016, but the house had been set on fire by those bandits.
Back in 2019, Howard had been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment after a city magistrate had found him guilty of robbing a fruit vendor in 2016. On October 12, 2016, at Church Street, Georgetown, while being armed with a gun, he had robbed Bibi Bacchus of $100,000 cash. Howard had also been charged with several counts of robbery under arms. Guyana Times is, however, unaware of the legal status of those robbery charges.