Committed to stand trial for murder in the High Court

Oct 30, 2022 News

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By Renay Sambach

Kaieteur News – A committal to the High Court means that the Magistrates  Court has found sufficient evidence for a trial to be conducted to determine whether or not an accused is guilty of the serious offence for which he or she has been charged.

Criminal offences start at the Magistracy level. This is where the matter is called before a Magistrate. However, at that level of the Judiciary, the accused is not required to plead to the charge as it is laid indictable.

 

The next step is for either a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) or Paper Committal to be conducted to determine whether or not the court is satisfied that there is enough evidence for the matter to be heard in the higher court. At the end of either of the aforementioned, if the Court rules that there is sufficient evidence, the Accused is then committed to stand trial at the next practicable sitting of the assizes.

In the High Court, when the matter comes up, the charge is read to the accused who can then plead either guilty or not guilty. In some instances, the accused opts to plead guilty to the lesser count of murder that is manslaughter – in other instances the Accused pleads not guilty and the matter will then go to trial.

Witnesses are called to give evidence in the matter. The witnesses will testify before a Judge and an empanelled Jury.

The penalty for murder is death. Notably, even though Guyana does not enforce the death penalty anymore, it is still on the books. This means if someone receives a death sentence, he/she will not be executed but rather imprisoned for life.

One convicted of murder can be sentenced to life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole, after serving a fixed number of years as ordered by the Trial Judge. On the other hand, the lesser count, manslaughter, carries a shorter period of jail time.

Below are some matters in which persons are committed to stand trial for the capitol offence at the next practicable sitting of the assizes.

HARESH SINGH

Recently, four men were committed to stand trial at the Berbice High Court for the murder of Berbice teenager,  Haresh Singh.

The accused are: Phillip Anderson called ‘Ratman’, 29 of Lot 25 No.3 Village, West Coast Berbice, Joel Gittens called ‘Bolo’, 27 of Jangotown, East Coast Demerara, and Charles Scott called ‘Bucko’, 21 of Lot 29 Jarvis Street, Rosignol, Berbice, and the murdered Henrys relative, Gladston Henry called ‘Gladwin Henry’, aka ‘Soldier man’, 27 of No.3 Village, West Coast Berbice.

The men were charged for the murder of 17-year-old Haresh Singh committed on the September 9, 2020 at Number 3 Village, West Coast Berbice.

Magistrate Peter Hugh presided over the matter at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court. At the end of a PI, he ruled that the Prosecution provided sufficient evidence in the case for the accused to stand trial before a judge and jury at the next practicable sitting of the Berbice Criminal Assizes.

Back in September 2020 following the horrific murder of Isaiah and Joel Henry – violent protest actions had erupted on the West Coast Berbice that dragged on for days, vehicles were burnt, people were brutalised, robbed and terrorised.

On the day of Singh’s death, he was on his motorcycle traveling to the No.3 Backdam to carry water for his other relatives when he was attacked, battered to the head, and about his body and left to die. His motorcycle was burnt and he was found barely breathing by relatives. Singh was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he succumbed some 15 minutes later.

HENRY BOYS

On March 1, last, two suspects in the brutal murder of Joel and Isaiah Henry were committed to stand trial. The suspects are Vinod Gopaul, 34, called ‘Magga’ of Yakusari, Black Bush Polder, Corentyne, Berbice, and Anil Sancharra, 33, called ‘Dan Pole’ of D’ Edward Village, West Coast Berbice.

The two accused had appeared before Magistrate, Peter Hugh, at the Blairmont Magistrate’s court. Magistrate Hugh ruled that a sufficient case was made out against Sancharra and Gopaul for them to be tried by the police prosecutor.

Gopaul and Sancharra were jointly charged and remanded to prison on Friday, January 15, 2021 for the murders of teen cousins, Isaiah and Joel Henry, in the Cotton Tree backdam at West Coast Berbice.

 

The cousins were found murdered in September 2020, one day after they reportedly went to pick coconuts in the backdam.

The bodies were severely mutilated and an x was found engraved in their foreheads. Police had arrested three suspects and one of them had given the investigators a video confession admitting to the crime.

CANADIAN CITIZEN

On March 24, last Magistrate Alex Moore committed three suspects in the murder of a Canadian citizen to stand trial in the Berbice High Court.

The accused in the matter are Moonasar Beharry, 56, a rice farmer of Lot 125 Section ‘A’ Number 70 Village, Berbice, Aszim Shivgobin aka ‘Blackie’ and Charran Sewdhan aka ‘Vickey’, 26, of Number 79 Village, Corentyne, East Berbice.

They were charged with the capitol offense of murder committed on Nicholas Ramkissoon Jaipaul, a Canadian citizen. The crime was committed between August 16 and 20, 2020.

According to reports, the burnt remains of Jaipaul was discovered on land covered by vegetation along the Moleson Creek stretch of road just two days after he went missing from his grandfather’s home at Number 70 Village. His then 86-year-old grandfather had said they retired to bed on the night of August 16 but the next morning when he awoke, his grandson was nowhere to be found.

After several hours passed, the grandfather filed a missing person’s report at the Springlands Police Station and the next day, he received a call on his landline phone from a male who informed him that Jaipaul was with him.

Police had managed to trace the call to a location in Georgetown where one of the accused (Sewdhan) was arrested. Under intense interrogation, he reportedly confessed that Jaipaul was killed with the help of Shivgobin. He claimed too that the plan to murder the Canadian citizen was concocted by Beharry, the rice farmer.

SOPHIA MAN

In June 2022, a woman who is accused, along with three others, of murdering her son-in-law, was committed to stand trial in the High Court for the capital offence.

The accused are: Brenna Nurse, and three of her son’s friends – Devon Harry, Nicholas Hercules aka “Bucko” and Peter Lam. They were jointly charged in August 2021, for the murder of Keron McPherson, 24, of ‘D’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown.

The matter was conducted in the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.

At the conclusion of the PI, Magistrate Roshelle Liverpool ruled that the Prosecution had provided sufficient evidence to the court for the accused to stand trial in the High Court for murder. The matter was prosecuted by Police Prosecutor, Visram Ramjattan.

According to reports, McPherson died from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. It was reported that Nurse, along with her three co-accused, had conspired to murder McPherson, following a previous altercation he had with them. It was reported that early on the evening of Saturday, August 14, 2021, McPherson had gotten into a heated argument with his girlfriend over money, which she had squandered.

The argument escalated and it turned physical between him and his mother-in-law, along with the three men, who had allegedly attacked him. Nurse had reportedly lashed her son-in-law to his head with a beer bottle while one of the men had chopped him to his chest.

McPherson had managed to escape and went home. However, it is alleged that he was later lured to his death by a phone call. According to reports, Nurse’s daughter had called McPherson close to midnight on the said Saturday. He was reportedly reluctant to go at first but the woman kept calling him so he eventually heeded and left home to meet her. However, he never returned home and around 04:00hrs the following morning, his body was discovered lying in a yard at ‘C’ Field Sophia with gunshot wounds.

(To share any useful information, please can contact me via email:[email protected] or phone number: + (592) 694-1862)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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