A 50-year-old Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) man was on Thursday found guilty by a 12-member jury of murdering his neighbour back in 2017.
Murder convict: Foster Gravesande
Following his arraignment before Justice Navindra Singh, Foster Gravesande pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on April 9, 2017, he murdered 49-year-old Courtney Porter.
After the unanimous guilty verdict, Gravesande was further remanded to prison until January 7, 2021, for probation report and sentencing. The murder convict was represented by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd.
When the trial commenced on Monday at the Demerara High Court, State Prosecutor Teriq Mohammed called four witnesses: Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh and three Police ranks. Dr Singh gave Porter’s cause of death as brain haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma.
Murdered: Courtney Porter
The three Police ranks testified to their role in investigating the murder. One of them, Police Constable Daniel Singh testified that during March 2017, he was stationed at the Mahaica Police Station.
He said that he put an allegation to Foster in the following words: “I told him while being armed with a piece of wood, he dealt Courtney Porter several lashes to his head causing him to receive injuries.”
Constable Singh said that Porter replied, ‘“I ain’t lash no man with no wood, boss.’”
Meanwhile, Police Constable Joel Chisholm said that he carried out duties as crime scene investigator, Police photographer and fingerprint technician.
Justice Navindra Singh
It was reported that Porter, a father of three, was reportedly beaten in the head with a piece of wood by Gravesande who had accused him of pulling his wife’s garments. Following the incident, Porter was hospitalised and his attacker was charged with attempt to commit murder and released on bail.
However, Porter succumbed two weeks after the beating and as such, Gravesande subsequently fled the area and was captured in another policing division.
The charge against him was upgraded to murder. After a Preliminary Inquiry (PI), in the Magistrate’s Court, he was committed to stand trial for the capital offence.
