Labourer committed to High Court for murder of entertainer and educator “Sir Mars”

Brian Richards, a 24-year-old labourer, has been officially committed to stand trial at the High Court for the 2023 murder of popular entertainer and high school teacher, Kirwyn Mars, widely known as “Sir Mars”.
The ruling was handed down by Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Diamond/Grove Magistrate’s Court, following the conclusion of a months-long preliminary inquiry into the fatal incident.
The trial will proceed at the next sitting of the Demerara Assizes.
Mars met a violent end on the night of May 7, 2023, when he was discovered lifeless at Plantation Providence on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD). His body was found wedged between his vehicle and a concrete fence.
An autopsy later revealed that Mars had sustained eight stab wounds across multiple areas of his body, including his chest, collarbone, shoulder, elbow and hand. The cause of death was listed as crushing injuries to the chest, compounded by multiple cutaneous wounds.
Richards, who resided in the John Fernandes Squatting Area at the time, was arrested two days later at his workplace in Georgetown. Surveillance footage captured earlier that day showed Richards and Mars leaving a bar together, evidence that police say placed him at the scene in the hours leading up to the killing.

In what authorities say was a confession, Richards allegedly admitted to stabbing Mars multiple times during a dispute inside the victim’s vehicle. He claimed the altercation began after the two left Green City Bar in Georgetown, where they had consumed several beers. Richards told investigators the argument escalated after leaving the bar and that Mars had initially attacked him with a knife. According to his account, he managed to disarm Mars and retaliated with multiple stabs.
The confession also detailed that Mars stopped the car near Providence and exited. Richards, while searching for his phone during the confusion, claimed he accidentally shifted the vehicle into reverse, resulting in Mars being pinned fatally against a fence.
Family dispute police version
However, Richards’ family strongly denies his involvement in the killing. Speaking outside the courtroom sometime after he was arrested, his wife insisted that Richards was home at the time of the incident.
She said he had been dropped off earlier that evening by Mars, near their community and was with her from around 21:00h, contradicting the police timeline which places the murder at approximately 22:30h.
Emotional and visibly distressed, she pleaded for a reinvestigation, arguing that Richards had no visible injuries and was not capable of reading the statement he allegedly signed under police interrogation.
The family called for his release and a review of CCTV footage from their neighbourhood to support their claims.
Adding to the family’s concern, Richards’ sister described him as “illiterate”, and expressed frustration with law enforcement’s communication.
She contended that if Richards had indeed been in a fight involving knives, he would have shown signs of injury.
While the court has moved forward with committing Richards to trial, the conflicting narratives and emotional appeals from the family suggest that the High Court proceedings could be both complex and highly scrutinised.