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224 cases listed for June session of Demerara Criminal Assizes

Jun 03, 2015 News

The June session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes opened at the Georgetown High Court, yesterday with a total of 224 cases listed for trial.     Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire, Justice Navindra Singh and Justice Brassington Reynolds, have been selected to preside over this session.
Of the criminal matters listed at least 30 are for murder; 35 for manslaughter, and over eighty cases of sexual violence-related crimes which include rape, incest, buggery, sexual activities with underage children and carnal knowledge.
Among the cases listed to be heard are that of popular television station owner and social activist Chandra Narine, (C.N) Sharma, and former President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Colwyn King – both accused of sexually assaulting underage girls – Selywn Mc Clintock for four counts of sexual activity with a child family member;  and Rupert Brown for rape, buggery, armed robbery and three counts of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Also still on the list are the cases of Colin Jones, Jahfar Simpson and Randy Mars who are charged jointly for setting fire to the Ministry of Health on  4th November 2009 and the case against Jevon Wharton and Charles Cush who are accused of murder and carnal knowledge of  nine year old Sade  Stoby at  Mocha, East Bank Demerara.  The latter two will be facing a retrial since their last hearing ended in a hung jury.
The murder trials of Charles Anthony Woolford, Cyon Collier called “Picture Boy,” Rhondell Bacchus, Justin Felix, Raymond Begehvems  are scheduled to come up before the judge and jury during this session of the criminal assizes.
During the last session, eight murder cases were completed by Justice George and Justices Navindra Singh, Brassington Reynolds, James Bovell-Drakes and Franklin Holder.
Of 230 cases were listed to be heard during the session; only ten criminal matters were completed at the Georgetown Supreme Court. Of these ten matters, eight were presented in the court while two matters were nolle prosequi by the DPP.
Of those eight matters Justice Singh completed two murder trials. ln one matter, the accused was acquitted after the Judge upheld a no case submission and in the other matter, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Three murder cases were taken before Justice George. In one of those matters, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment. ln the other trial, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict and the accused was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. The third trial, in which three accused persons are indicted, is in progress.
Justice Brassington Reynolds disposed of two matters for the offence of Murder. The jury in the first matter failed to reach a verdict and the trial judge ordered a retrial, while in the other matter, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser count of Manslaughter and was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment.
Justice James Bovell-Drakes, who sat during the January 2015 Criminal Assizes, continued into this session and completed one matter for the offence of Murder. That accused was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment after the jury returned a guilty verdict for the lesser count of Manslaughter.
Two matters were nolle prosequi by the DPP.
Of these two matters, one matter was for the offence of Carnal Knowledge of a Girl under 15 years and the other matter for the offence of Murder. In the matter for the offence of Carnal Knowledge, the virtual complainant indicated by writing that she no longer wished to proceed with the matter. In the another matter for the offence of murder, the accused could not instruct his Defence Counsel for the purpose of his trial and several witnesses were unable to testify.

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