Prison officers, 2 others charged over death row prisoner’s escape freed
Royden Williams, called “Smallie”
The six persons who had been charged with conspiracy in connection with the escape of death row inmate Mark Royden Williams, commonly known as “Smallie,” from the Mazaruni Prison in Region Seven, were on Friday freed after the magistrate upheld no-case submissions made on their behalf.
Among these implicated persons had been prison personnel Alexander Hopkinson, head of security at Mazaruni Prison; and Omar Whitherspoon, Conroy Hosannah and Oldfield Romulus. Those who had also been charged
were Rajmohan Autor, also known as ‘Chico’, a 48-year-old businessman of Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); and Frangeliz Jugandry Flores Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national residing in Kitty, Georgetown.
The defendants had been on trial before Magistrate Crystal Lambert at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court, where defence attorneys Bernard Da Silva, Patrice Henry and Renea Marcus made no-case submissions which were upheld by the magistrate. She told the court that she found no evidence to support the charges of conspiracy that were brought against the defendants.
Among the defendants who were acquitted of conspiracy charges are, from left: Superintendent of Prisons, Alexander Hopkinson; Conroy Hosannah and Omar Witherspoon
Williams, whose alias is “Smallie,” had escaped from the Mazaruni Prison in May 2023 with the assistance of heavily armed individuals in a speedboat. Following his escape, a $10 million reward was offered for his capture, but Williams was shot and killed during a Joint Services operation on June 1, 2023 at 47 Miles, Region Seven. Two of his accomplices were also fatally shot by police.
Williams had, in February 2017, received the death penalty after a jury had found him guilty of eight counts of murder related to the 2008 Bartica massacre wherein a dozen individuals, including three police officers, had been fatally shot.
In July 2017, Williams had managed to flee from the Camp Street Prison in Georgetown during a riot that had allegedly orchestrated the event. He was, however, apprehended on October 9, 2017 at Weldaad, West Coast Berbice (WCB) while aboard a public minibus.
Williams was, in 2013, acquitted after a 12-member jury had found him not guilty of charges stemming from the 2008 Lusignan massacre which had resulted in the deaths of 11 individuals, including five children. However, he
had received a death sentence in 2023 for the 2008 murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) personnel Ivor Williams. (G9)
