Jury empanelled to hear Richard Ishmael schoolteacher’s murder trial

A jury was empanelled on Wednesday to hear the case against taxi driver Matthew Munroe, whom Police accuse of murdering Richard Ishmael Secondary School teacher Kescia Branche between November 5 and 7, 2017.
The 51-year-old Munroe appeared before Justice Sandil Kissoon and pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The case for the prosecution is being led by State Counsel Seeta Bishundial, who will call her first witness on November 26. The defence lawyers are Dexter Todd, Dexter Smartt and Anastacia Sandford.
Munroe was first charged with the school teacher’s murder in December 2017, and remanded to prison. After a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) which ended on October 16, 2018, Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman had ruled that sufficient evidence was led by the Prosecution against Munroe for him to stand trial in the High Court for the capital offence.
Munroe had allegedly departed Guyana for the United States of America at some time in November 2017, but after spending some time overseas, had returned to Guyana and presented himself to the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters at Eve Leary, Georgetown.
The Police have said that, during interrogation, Munroe could not provide information on his whereabouts on the night that the school teacher was killed, as well as a reason for his car bumper missing.
Branche, 23, a mother of one, of Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, was discovered lying at the corner of Princes Street and Louisa Row in Georgetown on November 5, 2017. She was picked up in an unconscious state and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she died two days later. Her cause of death was given as haemorrhage and blunt trauma to the head.

According to reports, the young mother had left home for a night of partying. Her son was left in the care of a friend, who revealed that Branche had told her she had intended to go to a city nightclub to meet a male friend.
The teacher had later returned home, but had subsequently left again.
She had told her friend that she would be home by 02:00h, but never returned. She was last seen leaving a nightclub on Lamaha Street in the company of two Police ranks.
The father of Branche’s child was also arrested after the teacher’s mobile phone was found in his possession.
He and four Policemen were questioned about her death, but they were later released.