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Taxi driver pleads guilty to killing Lusignan hairdresser
Guilty: Melroy Doris
Lennox Wayne called ‘Two Colours.’
Kaieteur News – Melroy Doris, the taxi driver who was charged alongside Lennox Wayne called ‘Two Colours’ for the murder of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara cosmetologist, Ashmini Harriram, has pleaded guilty to the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Doris pleaded guilty to the lesser count virtually before Justice Brassington Reynolds at the High Court in Georgetown.
According to the charge presented by State Prosecutor Tyra Bakker, on July 10, 2014, he unlawfully killed Harriram, called “Monisha Harriram”.
According to the facts of the matter, on the day in question, Harriram was shot in the neck moments after she disembarked a minibus along the Lusignan Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara.
The shooter purportedly emerged from a burgundy motorcar, PRR 8370 parked along the said road. Doris was later identified as taxi driver of the car in the situation.
During yesterday’s proceeding, the confessed killer was represented by Stanley Moore, SC, but was however not sentenced. He has been remanded to prison pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 25, 2021.
Murdered: Ashmini Harriram
Doris’ plea comes one week after his co-accused Wayne filed a civil suit in court to challenge the State’s right to incarcerate him for several years for the crime. In the lawsuit, Wayne is alleging that his rights to a fair hearing have been infringed upon.
Wayne claimed that he and Doris had been incarcerated for the crime since October 2014.
He said that they have been awaiting trial since November 2015, after he committed to stand trial in the High Court by a Magistrate. Since then, Wayne explained that he underwent a trial, which ended in a hung jury in 2017, but ever since, he has not been afforded the opportunity to go before the Court.
The applicant said too, that his name was listed for retrial in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, but his case never came up.
According to him, all attempts made by him to expedite his trial had proven futile.
He noted specifically that his concerns over the delay were raised at the level of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), but were not addressed.
Wayne listed a number of other avenues through which he attempted to get his concerns over the delayed trial addressed, but to no avail.
In response to the lawsuit, the DPP issued a statement clarifying that the accused has the option of pleading guilty to the lesser crime.
The statement stipulated that “on several occasions, Wayne has indicated that his wish was to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter; the last indication was made in November 2020.
[However] on each of these occasions, after the State commenced preparation for the taking of his guilty plea, he changed his decision, which he is entitled to do.”
The DPP noted that although the accused seems to have taken a different route to address the matter, the State is willing to accept his guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Back in 2017, Doris and his co-accused Wayne faced a trial for crime in the High Court. They were remanded to prison after the jury failed to meet a verdict for the murder charge.
Following the verdict, Trial Judge, Jo Ann Barlow, had informed the accused the hung jury meant that they “will have to remain in custody and undergo another trial during another session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes.”
Ever since then the duo has been behind bars.
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