Verdict looms for accused in Kaneville robbery-murder case

Justice Navindra Singh will this morning sum up the evidence in the trial of 24-year-old Rayan Carter, the accused in the murder of 30-year-old machine operator Ishwar Ramanah of Kaneville, East Bank Demerara (EBD), who was shot when gunmen invaded his home on December 13, 2017.
The charge against Carter states that between December 13, 2017 and January 13, 2018, in the county of Demerara, he murdered Ramanah during a robbery. Carter has pleaded not guilty to the indictment presented against him by Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken.
It has been reported that Ramanah sustained a gunshot injury to his abdomen when two armed men invaded his home just after midnight on December 13, 2017. During the robbery, the machine operator was relieved of a gold chain valued at $40,000 before the bandits made good their escape. Police were, however, able to recover a spent shell casing at the crime scene.

The injured man had been taken for emergency attention at a medical facility, and had undergone surgery, but succumbed one month later while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital on January 13, 2018.
Carter was subsequently arrested by Police ranks and placed on an identification parade, where he reportedly was positively identified.
Following the close of the prosecution’s case on Tuesday, Carter opted to give an unsworn statement in his defence. He insisted that he does not know about the crime. In fact, the murder accused told the court that at the time when gunmen had gone into Ramanah’s home, he was at his girlfriend’s mother’s home.
“I don’t know anything about this murder. I read [about it] in the newspapers,” Carter said in his statement.
Carter claimed that he learned of his involvement in the crime only when he was charged and served with statements. According to him, on several occasions Police had gone to his mother’s house, looking for him. He testified that his mother turned him over to the Police.
“Me mother tell the Police that she bring me in because she does not want them to kill me,” Carter added. He said that Police returned to his mother’s house on January 17, 2018, arrested him and escorted him to the Golden Grove Police Station, EBD.
He added, “Them [the Police] never tell me what they arrested me for. They had me for nine days in the lock-ups. Them bring something for me to sign, but me ain’t sign it because it had the wrong name.”
According to the murder accused, on January 19, 2018 he was placed on an identification parade. He claimed that the other men on the ID parade were not of height, race, complexion and body structure similar to his. “That is why I told my mother to get a lawyer for them to do over the ID parade,” he explained.
But by then, Carter stated, it was too late, because he was already charged and placed before the court. (G1)