Lawyers call on Police to reopen probe into Kescia Branche’s murder

…say willing to work with crime sleuths to crack case

Days after taxi driver Matthew Munroe was freed of the 2017 murder of Richard Ismael Secondary School teacher, 22-year-old Kescia Branche, his lawyers are calling on the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to reopen investigations into the brutal killing of the young mother, even offering to render assistance.

Last week Tuesday, Munroe, 52, of Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was arraigned for the teacher’s murder before Demerara High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon.
His trial commenced after he pleaded not guilty to a charge of the capital offence. The prosecution had 31 witnesses. During the morning session, the prosecution led evidence from three witnesses before the case was adjourned for lunch. When the trial resumed, the prosecution indicated that it could not find its key witnesses.
At this point, the Judge explained that due to the absence of these witnesses, he did not believe that the prosecution would be able to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore directed the jury to return a formal not guilty verdict. The prosecution’s case was based primarily on circumstantial evidence.

Fresh investigation
During a press conference on Monday, Munroe’s lawyers, Dexter Todd, Nicola Sandford, and Shercola Exeter bemoaned the Police investigation into Branche’s murder. Based on the evidence, Todd said that his client should not have been charged. According to him, any person, even a layman would conclude that “clearly a wrong person was charged for this murder”.
Munroe, as well as his legal team, are calling on the Police to reopen the case because they believe the family of the deceased teacher needs justice. “Open this investigation and if during this investigation, the authorities come to a point in which they believe that they need better experts, then they must do so. We need better Police investigation,” Todd lamented.

Meanwhile, a tearful Munroe told reporters that he cooperated fully with Police investigations, stating that although he was vacationing in the USA at the time, he returned home to clear his name. He said that during interrogation, Police ranks beat him with a rope, covered his head with a plastic bag several times, threw water onto his face, and demanded he confesses to the crime.
He, nevertheless, pleaded with the Police to conduct a fresh investigation into the murder.
“I would like for this case to be reopened. If the media and the general public could join with me and we could ask the Government or whoever is responsible for this case to be reopened so that justice could be served. It is not fair for Ms Branche and her family and even for her son…it is not fair for them; justice must be served. I was taken away from my family for five years…,” he said.

No evidence
Even if the prosecution’s key witnesses had testified, Todd noted that this still would not have been sufficient to convict his client. He said that the matter did not fail because the prosecution failed to produce its main witness but rather because the circumstantial case, even if all the witnesses were presented, would not have allowed the court to put the case to a jury.
He also said that witnesses that the prosecution was unable to locate could not be the main witnesses as “there was no main witness in this case”. Todd stressed that whenever a matter goes before the court, it should be one of “substance”, adding that too many matters are presented that were not properly investigated. Against this backdrop, he described Munroe’s committal to stand trial as a travesty. Additionally, the lawyer believes that investigations into this murder were “tainted in a particular way” and “we cannot allow these things to happen in society”.
Munroe’s lawyer said that he and his associates have no intention of bashing the Police and are hoping to partner with them in an effort to make the criminal justice system better. He added, “It is a responsibility that we [lawyers] have to ensure that we do our part to better our society. The purpose of this press conference is to highlight that there is something definitely going wrong in the [Police Force].”
While he refrained from suggesting where the Police Force should direct its investigation, Todd said that 90 per cent of the persons who lawyers represent are innocent people who were wrongfully charged. The counsel noted that such injustices need to be highlighted not to embarrass the Police Force but to forge partnerships to improve the system.
Munroe, who has been on remand for the past five years, is contemplating suing the State for malicious prosecution.

Found unconscious
Branche, a mother of one, of Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, had been found unconscious at the corner of Louisa Row and Princes Street, Georgetown, in the vicinity of the Le Repentir Cemetery on November 5, 2017. She died two days later without regaining consciousness at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Her cause of death has been given as haemorrhage and blunt trauma to the head. Munroe was arrested sometime after and slapped with a murder charge.
Following a Preliminary Inquiry (PI), a city Magistrate had ruled that there was sufficient evidence against him to put him on trial at the High Court. 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 Brickdam Police Station in the company of his attorneys-at-law.
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 being missing. According to reports, the young mother had left home for a night of partying with her friends. Her young 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. Branche had later returned home but had subsequently left again.
She had told her friend that she would be home by 02:00h but had never returned. She had last been seen leaving a nightclub on Lamaha Street in the company of two Policemen. The father of Branche’s child was also arrested after the teacher’s mobile phone was found in his possession. He and four Policemen had been questioned about her death, but they were later released from custody.