25 matters disposed of during June Session of Demerara Criminal Assizes

Oct 17, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – A total of 25 matters were disposed of during the June 2021 session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes. According to the goal delivery done by Justice Sandil Kissoon last Friday, the June sessions, were presided over by Justice Brassington Reynolds, Justice Sandil Kissoon and Madam Justice Jo-Ann Barlow.

Justice Jo Ann Barlow.

The Assizes commenced on Tuesday June 1, last with a total of 331 cases listed to be heard. Of these 331 cases, 25 matters were disposed of. Of these 25 matters, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) presented 20 in the High Court of Demerara while five were nolle prosequi by the DPP.
Based on the statistics disclosed by Justice Kissoon, of the 20 cases presented, eight were for the offence of murder and two for sexual offences. He noted that a total of 26 persons appeared in these 20 cases. There were eight convictions, seven not guilty verdicts, seven guilty pleas, one hung jury and two formal verdicts of not guilty.
According to the statistics, Senior State Counsel Lisa Cave with State Counsel, Tenisha Saygon, and State Counsel, Muntaz Ali, completed eight matters for the offence of murder before Justice Sandil Kissoon.
The information outlined that in one case in which two accused were indicted together, they were both found unanimously guilty by jury verdicts and sentenced to death. In another four cases with a total of six accused, each of them pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentence to life imprisonment. Four of the convicts must each serve 15 years before being eligible for parole. The other two will serve 20 years and 30 years respectively before parole.
In another case, the data stated that the accused person pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentence to 18 years imprisonment. The trial judge in another matter, upheld a no-case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. In the other case with two accused persons, the jury was hung on the number one accused while the number two accused was found not guilty.

Justice Sandil Kissoon.

Over in the Sexual Offences Court, the goal delivery data outlined that State Counsels, Nafeeza Baig, Sarah Martin and Cecilia Corbin prosecuted 12 matters.
According to the statistics, three of these cases were completed before Justice Brassington Reynolds while nine were heard before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow.
In two of the three matters before Justice Reynolds, both accused were found guilty by jury verdicts for the offence of rape of a child under 16 years. In one matter, the accused who was indicted on two counts of rape was sentence to 25 years on each count. In another matter, the accused was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
The other accused was acquitted by a jury verdict. Of the nine cases before Justice Barlow, the jury in five matters returned verdicts of not guilty. In yet another case, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentence to seven years imprisonment.
Also two accused in another, who were indicted together, were found guilty by jury verdicts and were each sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Further, an accused who was indicted for rape and assault causing actual bodily harm was found guilty for the alternative offence of assault causing actual harm. He is awaiting sentence.
In the other case in which the virtual complainant testified that she did not wish to proceed with the evidence and the trial judge directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. In the five matters that were nolle prosequi by the DPP, one was for the offence of attempt to commit murder with an alternative count of discharging a loaded firearm with intent. The complainant in this matter has since died.
The other four matters were for Sexual Offences. These four complainants have submitted written statements that they did not wish to proceed with their matters.

ustice Brassington Reynolds.

Meanwhile, the statistics stated that in the Berbice Criminal Assizes which commenced on Tuesday, June 15, 2O21, 102 cases are listed to be heard.
Of the matters listed State Counsel, Abigail Gibbs completed five matters for the offence of murder and one for the offence of rape of a child under 16 years.
Two of the Berbice murder cases were before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow. In one the trial judge upheld a no case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. The other accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. The other three murder cases and the one sexual offence were prosecuted before Justice Brassington Reynolds.
Of the three murder matters, one accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Another one was acquitted after the trial judge up held a no case submission.
While the jury in one other case found the accused not guilty for the offence of murder then returned hung in proportion of nine with not guilty to three guilty on the lesser offence of manslaughter. This accused was granted bail in the sum of $500,000.
In the sexual offence matter, the complainant testified she did not wish to proceed with the evidence and the trial judge then directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty. The Berbice Assizes continues up to Monday, October 18, 202I.