‘Smilie’ freed of caretaker murder

Jun 18, 2008 News

Gerald James, who was accused of killing a cinema caretaker almost five years ago, was yesterday freed of murder after a jury acquitted him of the crime.

James, 33, nicknamed ‘Smilie’, was charged with killing 40-year-old Khemraj Bissoondyal, called ‘Bruiser,’ on November 20, 2003 at the Prince of Wales Cinema at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
He was indicted before Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes.

Justice Gregory-Barnes told the jury to acquit James if they found that his actions were unintentional, in self defence, or amounted to an accident.

The judge said the accused must also be freed if there was doubt or uncertainty as to his guilt or innocence.

“If you feel that he was in control of his mind, to an extent where he appreciated the consequences of his actions enough to form the intention to kill, then you must find him guilty of murder,” Justice Gregory-Barnes urged the jury.

However, the judge instructed them to find James guilty of manslaughter if they found that he had no intention to kill, or did not appreciate the consequences of his actions.

After about two hours of deliberation, the 12-member jury returned with two unanimous verdicts on both counts of murder and manslaughter.

James had made an unsworn statement from the dock proclaiming his innocence shortly after State Prosecutor Dionne McCammon had closed her case.

He said Bissoondyal and his wife had attacked him with an iron bar, causing him to retaliate.
Detective Corporal Oswald Foo said that James had walked into the station after throwing away the murder weapon in a trench.

According to Foo, on the morning of the incident, James went to Bissoondyal’s house, where he began drinking high wine.

The accused stated that, as he was leaving to go home, Bissoondyal struck him with the iron pipe.
He noted that he removed a knife from his pocket and stabbed the caretaker in his stomach.

“He pick up a iron bar and lash me pon me side…I pull out a knife from me pocket and juk he in he belly,” James said in the statement.

According to the accused, he then discarded the knife in a trench just outside the Police station.
Foo noted that the trench outside the Police station was scoured for the murder weapon, but none was found.

Under cross-examination, Foo said the cinema is located in a street just behind the Wales Magistrate’s Court, which is in the compound housing the Police station.

Foo admitted that James had an injury which appeared serious enough to warrant medical attention.
However, Bisoondyal’s wife claimed that her husband was stabbed after he ran out of food to offer James.
The woman denied that her husband, James or anyone else was consuming alcohol on the fateful morning.

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‘Smilie’ freed of caretaker murder

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