Justice Claudette La Bennett, who was presiding over the case, announced that the trial would be aborted but did not specify to the jurors the reason for the decision.

However, this newspaper learnt that one of the jurors was related to a witness who happened to be one of the investigating officers in the case.

But even before this, when the case began, defence counsel Peter Hugh had challenged the admissibility of a caution statement allegedly given to the police by Reynolds. According to the prosecution, Reynolds had signed a confession statement.

A voir dire (trial within a trial) was conducted right up to the decision to abort.

Reynolds was previously before the High Court for the very murder, but that trial had also been discontinued.

Just over a week after this, the case resumed with another voir dire being held. That one concluded on November 27, with Justice La Bennett admitting the caution statement as evidence.

And for the second time, the trial began before a 12-member jury in the Supreme Court, as the state called Detective Sergeant Cedric Gravesande, an investigating officer in the case, as its first witness.

Gravesande, currently heading the Criminal Investigations Department at the Kitty Police Station, testified that on June 24, 2004 he was at the time stationed at the La Penitence Police Station, which received a report of murder.

According to him, he and a party of policemen went to Lot 76 Princes Street, Lodge, and upon entering the building found an identifiable male East Indian lying in a bed, whose name he later learnt to be George Bacchus.

He added that a red substance, which appeared to be blood, was on the mattress and the man appeared to be dead.

Gravesande said he searched the body and found three wounds — one to the left side face, one to the right thigh, and another to the inner aspect of his right arm — which appeared to be made from gunshots.

According to Gravesande, the scene was photographed and checked by fingerprint experts in his presence. He questioned several persons, and subsequently escorted the body to the Lyken Funeral Parlour.

He also said that the flowing day a post mortem examination was performed on George Bacchus’s body, in his presence, at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary, by Dr. Nehaul Singh; after which the doctor gave the cause of death.

That post mortem report was tendered as evidence without objections by defence counsel Peter Hugh.

Several other witnesses followed.

Of significance was December 4, when Police Constable Michael Phillips testified to being present when the accused took the police to a weapon which he said he used to kill Bacchus.

According to Phillips, on June 30, 2004, he and a party of policemen headed by Superintendent Caesar, along with Reynolds, went to Lot 76 Princes Street, Lodge, (the address where Bacchus’s body was found).

He added that Reynolds then took the police ranks to the back of the house, to a box where he said, “This is where I hide de gun that I use to shoot George Bacchus.”

Phillips said that he received permission from his superior to search the box and subsequently found a nutshell under which he saw what appeared to be a revolver.

The weapon, the three spent shells and the live round were tendered as evidence in court.

Retired Detective Charles Alleyne, who witnessed the caution statement, took the stand yesterday and read the contents of the statement in which Reynolds said that he climbed in a window to Bacchus’s room and shot him three times.

In the statement, Reynolds said that funeral parlour co-owner Debra Douglas offered him $200,000 to kill Bacchus, and he accepted. Douglas was the reputed wife of the man accused of murdering Shafeek Bacchus, who was killed a few months before George Bacchus.

The caution statement also said that Reynolds was given a gun on June 23, which he hid at a Chinese restaurant in Garnett Street and retrieved the following night to do the shooting. Reynolds also called Bacchus names, such as jumbie and others.

He was Bacchus’s handyman, and lived in a shack in the yard.

The next twist came the following day when Reynolds suddenly decided to change his plea to guilty to a lesser count of manslaughter. On December 12, Reynolds was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for the killing of George Bacchus.

Reynolds, 23, had thrown himself at the mercy of the court.

Before the sentencing, the prosecution and the defence were afforded the opportunity to say a few words.

State Prosecutor Judy Latchman asked the court to take into account Reynolds’s age, the fact that he has his whole life ahead of him, and the length of time that he has already been incarcerated — June 2004 to present.

Defence counsel Peter Hugh endorsed those comments, and said that his client had not been afforded many opportunities in his life.

The lawyer noted that he understands that since Reynolds has been in prison he has had an unimpeachable record.

He also said that his client has taken all opportunities afforded to him, and has been certified by the University of Guyana’s Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, in that he has completed Skills for Success levels one and two.

“He (Reynolds) has been making efforts to improve himself. He has equipped himself with some skills to enable him to make a meaningful contribution to society.”

Hugh pointed out that this is Reynolds’s first brush with the law, and that he has already been in custody for four years.

“I am of the view that he was a pawn that was manipulated by certain other persons. “Nonetheless, he is very sorry for his actions.”

Before handing down her sentence, Justice La Bennett told Reynolds that his actions had resulted in the death of another human being, and that is a serious matter which the court cannot look lightly upon.

The judge noted that, for the offence of manslaughter, an accused that is found guilty can get life imprisonment, but there are certain benefits to persons who plead guilty.

Justice La Bennett, in taking into account Reynolds’s age, the time he had spent in prison, and the fact that he was not the only party involved in the matter, sentenced him to 10 years.

Reynolds told this newspaper that he decided to plead guilty since it seemed to be the right choice.

According to him, they were all saying things that he did not say, and he could have been convicted of murder, so he made a choice that he thought was best.

The following week, Reynolds was back in court, and was sentenced to an additional 14 years in jail on arms and ammunition charges, stemming from the killing of Bacchus.

However, Reynolds, 23, will only spend 10 years in prison, since Justice Claudette La Bennett ordered the additional sentences to run concurrently with the sentence he received for manslaughter.

On the charge of possession of firearm without licence, Reynolds pleaded guilty. He then asked to explain, a request that the court granted.

He said that he received the gun from a man and he subsequently showed the police the weapon.

The Judge found that no special circumstances existed, and sentenced Reynolds to seven years on each of the arms and ammunition charges. The sentences are to run concurrently with the 10 years he is currently serving.

Bacchus was found dead in bed at his Princes Street home on June 24, 2004 after he made bombshell revelations about a death squad operating in the city, for which he said he once gathered information. His brother, Shafeek Bacchus, had been killed a few months prior.

Funeral parlour co-owner Debra Douglas and her nephew, Fabian ‘Fabie’ Jessop, had been jointly charged with Reynolds with Bacchus’s murder, but they were subsequently freed due to insufficient evidence.

Representing the state in this matter were Dianna Boyan, Judy Latchman and Zamilla Ally.