Latest update November 23rd, 2024 12:15 AM
Rosignol Chinese Restaurant fatal stabbing…“Rabbit” guilty of murder
– to be sentenced following probation
“Guilty of murder,” was the reply of the forewoman when asked for the decision by the Registrar in the
Murder accuse: Shazam Khalil
Rosignol Chinese Restaurant murder.
Twenty-three year-old murder accused Shazam Khalil called “Rabbit”, a cane harvester, of 53 Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice, was on trial for the capitol offence before Justice Jo Ann Barlow and a mixed jury. Khalil seemed tense as he awaited the verdict and seemed lost when it was handed down.
He was before the court for the murder of 19-year-old Shazina Mohamed, of Edinburgh Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice.
The young woman was brutally stabbed about her body around 19:00 hours on January 17, last year, in front of the Yang Yi Chinese Restaurant, at Rosignol, West Bank Berbice.
Both the prosecution and defence had closed their cases and presented arguments to the jury. State Prosecutor Stacy Goodings had urged the jury to believe the state’s case which had two eyewitnesses and the doctor’s testimony.
Defence lawyer Tajenarine Ramroop in his presentation pointed to some inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case, and urged the jury to believe the defence’s case of self defence and accident.
Justice Barlow subsequently summed up the evidence to the jury and directed the panel on the law. After retiring, the jury returned just under two hours with a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder.
Victim: Shazina Mohamed
Before asking for the benefit of a probation report for his client, Ramroop told the court that his client is just 23 years old, is not married, has no children, and lives with his parents. It was the first time he was charged for any offence.
Khalil told the court that he was never expecting to be found guilty.
Prosecutor Goodings had told the court that on the day in question, in a fit of rage, the accused knifed the teen, who was his ex-lover. The woman was at the Yang Yi Chinese Restaurant when she was ambushed and stabbed by the accused, who then fled the scene.
The woman was picked up and rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital, and subsequently transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she succumbed. The matter was subsequently reported and Khalil was arrested and charged.
During the trial, the Prosecution called a number of witnesses including Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan who gave the cause of death as shock and haemorrhage due to multiple stab wounds. He testified that Shazina Mohamed had a lot of clot blood and her right lung had collapsed. The wounds, he had told the court, were mostly stab wounds and were not self-inflicted , but caused mainly by an attack.
Also testifying was detective Constable Andel Doris, main prosecution witness Vishwa Sukhdeo, his sister Latchmi Sukhdeo, Detective Corporal Kofi Robinson and Constable Orwin Barton.
Khalil had given an unsworn statement from the docks.
The court also applied section 95 of the Evidence Act to have the deposition of Shafique Mohamed – which was taken in the Magistrate’s Court – admitted in evidence.
The state called a number of witnesses to support its application, including Police Sergeant Alexis Adams of the Central Immigration and Passport Office in Georgetown, Fazia Mohamed, daughter of Shafique and sister of Shazina, and Legal Clerk attached to the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court, Ophelia Marques. The statement was read into evidence by Marques.
The accused had given an unsworn statement from the dock. He said that he was called by the deceased on his phone. He claimed that when he arrived she was with a male individual and told him that this is her “new man”. Khalil said that he was about to walk away when Shazina Mohamed grabbed him back.
“She was bigger and stronger than me. She cuff me in my left eye. I beg she to loose me, she nah loose me. She brace me up to a white car and call the boy to come with a beer bottle to kill me. After I see the boy coming with the beer bottle, I tek de knife and cut she so that she can loose me. After she did not loose me I cut she harder. I then loose she and run away.”
“I never want to hurt Shazina because of the feeling I had for her.”
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