Teen arraigned for murder of Bush Lot brothers

The teenager who confessed to the murder of the two Bush Lot Berbice brothers on Old Year’s Night was on Tuesday arraigned for the heinous crime when he appeared at the Mibicuri Magistrate’s Court.

Eighteen-year-old Keeran Jeenarine, also called “Roni”, was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that on December 31, 2018, he murdered Premchand Samaroo and Harichand Samaroo.
However, the defence counsel is holding out that Police had arrested and charged his client wrongfully while arguing that video footage placed the teenager at another location at the time of the murder. Defence Attorney Charlyn Artiga stated that the video footage was taken from a supermarket and as such, the court has given the prosecution time to produce the video.
In addition, the Attorney also asked for the prosecution to make a full disclosure of all the evidence that it has against Jeenarine.
She also noted that he was in custody since January 10 after he presented himself to the Police. On the other hand, Police Prosecutor Inspector Orin Joseph told the court that the Police are still conducting their investigations.
Attorney Artiga argued that if the Police were not ready, they could have approached the High Court for more time to keep the accused in custody rather than instituting murder charges without completing their investigation.
“Who is going to compensate him for the time spent and he could be exposed to all sorts of things in prison,” she argued.
She also argued that the Police were not certain who they were seeking for the murders, since they would have issued wanted bulletins for two men who were subsequently sent away.
Magistrate Alex Moore said those concerns could be taken to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on behalf of the accused.
With respect to the video, the Magistrate gave the prosecution until January 22 to review and complete the report on same. The matter was transferred to the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.