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Mark Williams gets additional death penalty for Bartica massacre
The Bartica massacre trial concluded yesterday with Mark Royden Williams, called ‘Durant’ or ‘Smallie’ given an additional death penalty on a murder charge; and life imprisonment on four counts of manslaughter.
Sentenced to death: Mark Royden Williams
The decision was handed down by Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire SC, at the High Court in Georgetown. Two Fridays ago, a 12-member jury had found Williams guilty of the offences after almost six hours of deliberation.
On February 17, 2008 at Bartica, he killed Lance Corporal Zaheer Zakir, and Constables Shane Fredericks and Ron Osborne, Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasseen, Errol Thomas, and Baldeo Singh.
However, after the verdicts, Justice George imposed the death penalty on Williams for seven counts of murder.
There were some discrepancies in relation to how many counts of murder the jury had found him guilty on. This led to Justice George-Wiltshire listening back to a recording of the jury’s verdict, during which she confirmed that Williams was found guilty of an eighth count of murder.
On that count, the judge imposed the death penalty yesterday, and informed Williams that he will be hanged by the neck until he is dead.
“May the lord have mercy upon your soul”, the Judge added.
Williams and his lawyer, Roger Yearwood, refused to say anything before the sentences were passed.
As it relates to the guilty verdicts for manslaughter, Justice George-Wiltshire explained that it was determined by the jury that Williams did not intend to kill or cause the four persons actual bodily harm. She added that based on the evidence, it was clear that Williams was a part of the Rondel ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang.
Rawlins, according to the police, led the gang on the rampage in Bartica as well as the one that converged on Lusignan, East Coast Demerara on January 26, 2008. He was killed during a joint services operation on August 28, 2008.
The Judge pointed out that the mass killings caused much trauma in the country.
This trial had been ongoing for close to three months. It saw Dennis Williams, called ‘Anaconda’ being sentenced to death for seven counts of murder; Michael Caesar called ‘Mikey’, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of manslaughter and was given 60 years’ jail on each count; Clebert Reece called ‘Chi Chi’ or ‘Fineman’ was sentenced to 35 years each on 12 counts of manslaughter and Roger Anthony Simon called ‘Goat Man’ was acquitted of the killings.
Simon is out on bail in relation to other charges including terrorism and break and enter and larceny.
The state was represented by Diane Kaulesar and Stacy Gooding.
On the night of February 17, 2008, a large group of gunmen attacked Bartica, slaughtering a dozen people, including three police officers, during an hour-long attack. It was reported that the armed men attacked the police station before killing the three policemen and freeing prisoners. They then left with the vehicle assigned to the police station and went on a rampage, terrorizing the community.
According to reports, the gunmen arrived in the area by boat and departed in a similar fashion taking the firearms they grabbed from the police station and a mining company.
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