Attorney seeks permanent stay of charges against Buxton murder accused

Feb 11, 2010 News

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Attorney-at-law Basil Williams has filed a motion in the High Court seeking a permanent stay of the murder charge instituted against his client Trion Sumner.
Sumner, who along with Squince McLennon, is facing trial for the murder of Odinga Brian, is the subject of a controversial High Court battle with the state following the granting of his pre-trial liberty by Justice James Bovell-Drakes two weeks ago.
The granting of bail was prompted by the inability or reluctance of the Director of Public Prosecutions to proceed with his trial despite an order issued by Justice Bovell-Drakes.
However, the DPP, through attorney-at-law Anil Nandlall, had moved to the court and was granted a temporary injunction against Justice James Bovell-Drakes’ decision to grant Sumner bail.
But in another legal twist to the matter, Sumner’s mother, Cheryl Sumner, through Defence Counsel Williams has moved to the court seeking redress for her son under Article 153 of the Constitution for the contravention of the accused’ fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under Articles 40, 139 and 144 of the Constitution of the Republic of Guyana.
Court documents cite the Attorney General as the respondent.
According to the motion, Cheryl Sumner is seeking a declaration that the failure of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to afford her son a fair hearing within a reasonable time of the criminal charge of murder brought against him since the 27th February 2004 is an abuse of the process of the Court, and a breach of Article 144 of the constitution.
She is also seeking (1) an order staying permanently the criminal charge of murder brought against  Trion Sumner since the 27th February 2004; (court records show that Sumneer was charged on February 13, 2005) (2) Alternatively a Declaration that Trion Sumner has been deprived of his personal liberty guaranteed under Article 139 of the constitution, in that he having been arrested and detained since the 31st January 2004, (the records suggest that he was arrested in January 2005) allegedly upon reasonable suspicion of him having committed the criminal offence of murder has not been tried within a reasonable time; (3) An order that her son be released either unconditionally or upon reasonable conditions, including in particular such conditions as are reasonably necessary to ensure that he appears at a later date for trial in accordance with Article 139 of the constitution; (4) An order that Trion Sumner be awarded damages for breach of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 40, 139 and 144 of the Constitution; and such further or other order as to the Court may seem just.
According to a sworn affidavit by the murder accused to support the motion, Sumner was arrested on January 31, 2004 and detained at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation until the 27th day of February, after being shot while he was asleep on his farm at Buxton, East Coast Demerara.
On February 27, 2004 he appeared before Magistrate Brassington Reynolds in the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court charged with the offence of murder of Odinga Brian.
He was refused bail, remanded, and the matter adjourned.
But on August 10, 2004 Sumner again appeared before Magistrate Reynolds, this time charged jointly with Squince Mc Lennon, for the same offence
The Preliminary inquiry into the matter commenced on October 7, 2005.
The PI lasted until March 23, 2007 and Sumner was committed to stand trial together with Squince McLennon at the next criminal sessions at the High Court in Demerara for the offence of murder of Odinga Brian, contrary to Section 100 of the Criminal Law (offences) Act Chapter 8:01.
According to the affidavit no indictment of the offence of murder has been preferred by the DPP before any Judge of the High Court at the Demerara Criminal Sessions since April 2007 to the present, effectively causing Sumner to have been detained for over six years now, without trial.
On or around the December 29, 2009, at jail delivery, State Prosecutor Naimalia Ali represented to Defence Counsel Basil Williams and the Court that the indictment against Sumner would be the first matter on His Honour, Mr. Justice Bovell-Drakes’s  list of cases, to be preferred.
On the January 12, last, the DPP through its representative, State Prosecutor Ms. Judith Mursaline, told Justice Bovell-Drakes that the DPP was unable to prefer the indictment against Trion Sumner, because she was unable to locate the main witness, one Errol Adams.
The judge then reminded the prosecutor that he had mentioned at Jail Delivery last year that the matter of Trion Sumner and Squince McLennon was one of the oldest on his list and that some effort should be made to get it tried at the next Criminal Sessions.
He noted that since it was listed as number two on his list, he directed it should be the next matter for trial, after hearing Counsel for Sumner and the State Prosecutor.
In his affidavit the accused stated that on January 26, 2010, instead of preferring the indictment against him and McLennon, State Prosecutor Ms. Pritima Kissoon purported to prefer another indictment.
Justice Bovell-Drakes after noting that the DPP had failed to carry out his order of 12th January 2010, and the failure of the State Prosecutor to give any legal justification for disobeying his order and for failing to prefer the said indictment, granted bail to Sumner in the sum of $300,000.
But three days later Madam Justice Diane Insanally granted the DPP a conservatory order staying and/or suspending the execution of Justice Bovell-Drakes’s order of January 26, on an Ex Parte application, refusing to hear Counsel for Sumner, before making her order.
The matter has been transferred for hearing in bail court in February 15, 2010.
And in her affidavit in support of her son, Cheryl Sumner stated that the accused is 28-years-old and is a farmer and porkknocker by occupation.
She said that Sumner has no previous conviction.
Cheryl Sumner said that she believes that from the length of the delay, to wait, six years, the law would presume that her son has suffered prejudice.

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