Cobra for new High Court trial

Jul 22, 2018 News

After Appeal Court sets aside conviction, sentence

Tyrone Rowe, called Cobra

The Court of Appeal ruled on Friday, that High Court Judge Navindra Singh had misdirected the jury as it relates to the evidence in the case of the State versus Tyrone Rowe called “Cobra.”

Tyrone Rowe, called “Cobra“, was sentenced to 78 years in prison for murder by Justice Singh after he was convicted of murdering Troy Collymore, called ‘Colly’ and ‘Nelly’, during the course of a felony. At the time his attorney, Hookumchand (now deceased) had appealed the ruling due to the severity of the sentence.

Following considerable deliberation, the Appeal Court, on Friday ruled that the trial Judge failed to direct the jury adequately on the discrepancies in the evidence presented particularly as it relates to that of an eyewitness.

Among other things, the Appeal Court also pointed out that Judge misdirected the panel regarding the evidence in relation to the identification parade.

In delivering the ruling, presiding Judges, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Rishi Persaud and Arif Bulkan noted based on the review of the case against Rowe, the conviction is set aside.

The Court however ordered that the accused face a new trial for the murder at the High Court at the October session of Demerara Criminal Assizes.

Earlier this year, Defence Attorney George Thomas addressed the Court of Appeal on a number of points, which he claims formed an erroneous basis on which Rowe was convicted and sentenced.

He raised a number of points in which he believes the trial Judge erred or misdirected the jury towards the end of the trial in the High Court.

In addition to severity of sentence, Thomas addressed the Court on five additional grounds, which he claims led to the erroneous conviction and sentence of his client.
During his address, Thomas pointed out, inter alia, what he claimed is a “conflict” in the evidence of the two main eyewitnesses.

He stressed that the trial Judge, at the summing up of the evidence, only underlined the strength of the testimony provided by eyewitness and police constable, Neil Thornhill.
Thomas told the court that while constable Thornhill said he recognized one of the men involved in the crime to be Rowe, he also said that there was a light, which cast a shadow on the faces of the men at the time of the incident.

Thomas noted that the Judge failed to point out the latter to the jury. The lawyer said, too, that that the policeman claimed that he recognized Rowe, because of encounters with him when he was 14 years old. However, Thomas said, at the time when the crime was committed his client was 17 years old.

“His features would have been notably changed by age seventeen. You cannot say that the person you knew at 14 years would look the same way three years later,” he argued.

He claimed a failure to highlight such weaknesses added to his detriment of his client‘s case.
Pointing out what he described as conflict in the evidence, Thomas told the Court that he believes the testimony of Chandrika Datt, another eyewitness, was not handled in the same manner.

Expounding on the issue of severity of sentence, Thomas argued that the Judge administered a lengthy, “term of years” sentence, without taking into consideration the time the crime was committed.
He noted that in August 2010 (the time of the alleged murder), there was no amendment to the law as it relates to the legal punishment for murder; it was still the death penalty.
“No amendment was made to the legislation at that time to allow for a term of years sentence.”

While he agreed that the imposition of the death penalty could not be less severe than the term of years, the lawyer argued that the excessiveness of the sentence should be viewed in the same manner as a mandatory death sentence.

Emphasizing that the law cannot be retroactively administered, Thomas held that it was a wrong determination by the Court to hand down a term of years sentence without taking into consideration the amendment took effect until October of 2010.

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