Just one day after being apprehended by police to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on firearm-related charges, 23-year-old mason Leon Moore was hauled back before the courts, this time for his alleged role in a violent robbery that left a man severely chopped and bleeding in the streets of Agricola.
Moore, who resides at Phase 2 Farm Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, and Titus Street, Agricola, appeared on Wednesday before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. He was charged with robbery under arms committed on Kweisi Lewis during a cutlass-wielding attack on April 30.
Leon Moore being escorted
The charge mirrors the earlier one laid against Brandon Williams, also 23, of Agricola, who was remanded to prison on July 4 in connection with the same incident. During that court appearance, the virtual complainant, Lewis, told the court that two men, Williams and another individual, viciously chopped him after accusing him of “bringing police into the village” following a dispute involving his girlfriend and a female associate of the accused.
The other man involved in the attack had not been publicly named at the time. But during Wednesday’s proceedings, it was revealed that Leon Moore was the alleged accomplice referenced in Lewis’s earlier testimony.
Police allege that on April 30, Moore and Williams, both armed with cutlasses, robbed Lewis of an Akunya cell phone valued at $150,000 and $40,000 in cash, totalling $190,000. Lewis told the court that on the day of the incident, he was visiting a friend at the front of the village when the two men confronted him, kicked down the door of the home, and stole his belongings. When Lewis questioned them, the men reportedly turned on him and began chopping him about his body.
He recalled that in an attempt to shield himself from a cutlass swing aimed at his head, he raised his hand, which absorbed the blow. His wrist was severely lacerated, exposing the bone. Despite being chopped several more times, Lewis managed to escape and hide in a nearby yard. He later made a desperate run to the public road, where he tried to flag down vehicles but collapsed from blood loss. Eventually, a passing police patrol noticed him lying in the street and rushed him to the hospital, where he was admitted for three days.
In court on Wednesday, Moore denied the charge and was remanded to prison until August 8, the same date set for Williams’s next court appearance. Prosecutors once again objected to bail, citing the violent nature of the crime and continued threats allegedly made by the accused against the victim.
