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Teen driver remanded for Berbice road tragedy
…his parents visit the victims’ relatives
Yesterday, 18-year-old Makesh Persaud of Lot 121, Number 51 Village, Corentyne, appeared before Magistrate
Remanded: Makesh Persaud, 18
Rabindra Singh at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court and was remanded to prison. Persaud entered a packed courtroom shortly before midday. He was trembling as he entered the docks for the many charges to be read to him.
Persaud was driving a grey Toyota Spacio, PPP 5482, allegedly in a drunken state on Wednesday evening, when he struck down and killed three girls, and injured two men on the Corentyne Highway.
Dead are Latoya Bagot, 18, and her sister Wanita Bagot, 15, both of Lot 16 Phillipi, Corentyne, and their niece, three-year-old Shemaine Cort. They were going home on their bicycles when they were hit from behind.
Delroy Parks, 28, of Cromarty Village, was also in the path of the speeding driver as was Matthew McBean, 19, of Number 35 Village, a student of the University of Guyana, Berbice Campus (UGBC), who remains in a critical condition. The incident occurred around 18:30 hrs.
The driver was caught by police just after he hit his fifth victim. He was given a sound trashing by residents who then pulled the vehicle out of the trench and destroyed the windscreen and trashed the other portions of the vehicle.
Persaud later told police that he thought he had hit animals on the road.
Other than separate charges of failing to stop and rendering assistance, as well as taking each of the victims to registered medical practitioners for treatment, Persaud was charged with drinking and driving. The amount of alcohol in his breath on that fateful Wednesday night was 68 micrograms.
He was also charged with breaching the speed limit.
Yesterday, his counsel, Attorney-at-Law Rodwell Jagmohan was absent so he was represented by Attorney-at- Law and former Magistrate, Mr. Krisendat Persaud.
As the charges were read, Persaud’s voice could barely be heard and he had to be asked
Dead: Wanita Bagot, Shemaine Cort and Tabitha Bagot
several times to speak louder. He pleaded ‘Not Guilty’ to every charge. There were more than eight charges.
Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Aletha Solomon, stated that bail should be refused due to “the nature and gravity of the offence,” and because of the prevalence of these types of offences on the roadways in Guyana.
She said that Persaud not only drove the car dangerously that night, killing “three Guyanese citizens, and resulting in the injuries of two other persons, one of whom is in a critical state—other charges are likely to be made,” but Persaud continued to drive in a reckless manner and did not stop, proceeding further up the Corentyne.
More lives could have been endangered had there been “other unlucky persons on the roadway.” However, the Magistrate, cautioned the Prosecutor that there cannot be supposition in the matter and that Persaud, though is being accused, “also has rights.”
Attorney Persaud then requested bail for the defendant. He argued that the young man is a market vendor at the Rose Hall Town Market and that it was only his first appearance in court.
Bail was refused and the matter transferred to Whim Magistrate’s Court on July 2, 2014.
Post- mortems performed yesterday by Government Pathologist Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan at the New Amsterdam Hospital, concluded that Latoya Bagot died of a fractured skull and broken spine. Wonita Bagot died of a broken spine, punctured lung; and fractured neck. Her left arm was also broken.
Three-year-old Shemaine Cort died of a fractured skull as well. Her hip was also broken.
Persaud’s parents turned up yesterday at the girls’ Phillipi, Corentyne residence to sympathize with the relatives of the deceased.
Speaking to a relative via telephone, the person stated that they said they came to give sympathy, “because the people told them they will get licks but we are glad they come. They are free to come.”
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