“Satan” acquitted of teen girl’s murder

Thirty-seven-year-old Alvin Reid, also called “Satan”, who had been on trial for the murder of 14-year-old Malika Hamilton of Two Sisters Village, East Coast Demerara (ECD), has been acquitted of the charge after a jury returned a not guilty verdict on Tuesday.

Reid had initially denied murdering Hamilton between August 8 and 9, 2016.
Attorneys-at-Law Simran Gajraj, Muntaz Ali and Taneisha Saygon prosecuted the matter.
After calling several witnesses, they closed their case against Reid last week Monday.
Reid’s lawyers, Konyo Sandiford-Holder, and Iyanna Butts, had thereafter made a no-case submission, but it was overruled by Demerara High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall.
Reid had been called upon to lead a defence, after which closing addresses were made by both sides and the matter was adjourned for the Judge to sum up the evidence.
Following deliberations on Tuesday, the jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict.

Reid, of Nimrod Street, Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara (ECD), had been committed to stand trial for the murder of the teen girl in 2018. However, in 2019, he was mistakenly released from prison while awaiting trial, and was recaptured only on September 21, 2022.
It has been reported that Hamilton and Reid, who had been known to each other, had gone for a swim in the Hope Canal on the ECD on August 8, 2016.
She was never again seen alive, and her body was subsequently found by residents of the community floating in the canal several miles away from the Hope Canal Bridge.
Hamilton had left home following an argument with her father over the telephone, and had never returned home.
Reid, who had managed to evade the Police after being identified as a suspect in her murder, was eventually found hiding in a barrel in the Ann’s Grove cemetery a few days later. (G1)