Prosecution to make final submission on Tuesday

Sep 05, 2009 News

… Slain KN pressmen PI

Yesterday, the two remaining accused who have been charged for the murder of five Kaieteur News pressmen in August 2006, made yet another court appearance.

The duo, Dwight Da Silva and Quincy Evans, made their appearance at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, before Magistrate Nigel Hawke.

Prior to yesterday’s hearing in the Preliminary Inquiry, the men appeared in court on Thursday when the Magistrate ordered that the case be closed, since the three remaining witnesses in the matter failed to show up on several occasions.

The three witnesses, Troy Bachan, Mark Benjamin and Rickford Selman were called to the stand to give evidence on several occasions but never turned up in court.

This was the reason given by Magistrate Hawke for closing the matter. During yesterday’s hearing the lawyer representing the duo, Compton Richardson, made an oral submission to the court.

During his submission the lawyer pointed out that a Prima Facie case has not been made out against his clients on the grounds that there is no evidence to establish an essential ingredient of the charges. Richardson pointed out that there is no evidence, be it direct or circumstantial, showing that the murders were committed by the duo, nor is there any evidence that either of the two were present at the time the offence was committed.

“The eyewitness, who testified to the shooting of Richard Stewart and the others, never at any point identified Evans as being one of the persons who entered the premises where the shooting took place,” Richardson said.

He added that when Evans was arrested for the murders and the allegations were put to him he was cautioned by an officer and his reply to the officer was “I didn’t kill anybody”.

“That alone is a clear denial by Evans of any involvement by him in any one of the killings and that statement does not say that he was present at the time of the killing,” Richardson stated.

“I respectfully submit that there is not a slightest shred of evidence that Evans was in anyway connected to the killings”.

Richardson further submitted to the court that evidence put forward by the prosecution can not establish that Evans played any role in the murders. He further asked the court to take into consideration the fact that a Preliminary Inquiry is to ensure that one is not committed to stand trial in the High Court, unless there is reasonable evidence.

“I urge the court to discharge the matter under Section 69 of the Criminal Offences Act Chapter 10; 01” Richardson said.

Meanwhile, in his submission for the matter to be discharged against Da Silva, Richardson said there again was no evidence linking him to the killings as well.

Richardson asked that the Court carefully read through two statements which have been admitted into evidence relating to Da Silva’s involvement.

He further explained to the court that according to statements given by the accused, he told investigators he was involved in an incident at Bagotstown and after that he left and went home, the same night when the pressmen were killed.

“Sergeant Gravesande under cross examination told the court that Da Silva did say that after leaving Bagotstown on the night of the Kaieteur News killings he went home…so there is no evidence by the prosecutor to contradict what Da Silva said about his whereabouts that night,”

According to Richardson, Da Silva did however tell an investigator that it was the following morning when one ‘Tallman” came to him and gave him $5,000 telling him “Dem boys send this fuh yuh; dem boys went in Kaieteur News at Eccles rob dem people and den kill dem,”.

“My Worship what Da Silva said in his statement is also hearsay evidence, and that in itself is inadmissible…what is in that statement is admission to two other incidents at Bagotstown, but nothing regarding the killings at Kaieteur News,” Richardson said.

Meanwhile, the matter has been put down for next Tuesday (September 8) when the prosecution is expected to make its final submission.

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Prosecution to make final submission on Tuesday

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