April 30, 2007
Five juveniles flee Ruimveldt lock-ups
Five juvenile prisoners yesterday morning escaped from the Ruimveldt Police Station lock-ups and up to press time they were on the run as a police search team pursued them. This escape adds to a growing list of prison and police station break-outs last year and this year.
Police Commissioner (acting), Henry Greene yesterday afternoon told this newspaper that the force would be issuing a statement accompanied by photographs of the juvenile escapees today. He declined to release details of the escape saying that everything would be contained in the statement today.
Stabroek News understands that the five juveniles were housed in a separate cell at the Ruimveldt Station. According to reports ranks at the station were making a routine physical search of the quintet when they rushed the officers, subduing them and escaped. Running through several of the streets in the busy La Penitence area the suspects disappeared. Police activated a response team of armed ranks who are searching for the juveniles. It is not clear what charges the youngsters were being held for.
Since the start of the year there have been several escapes from the prison system and police stations across the country. It began in January when nine inmates broke out of the Mazaruni jail. Around 4.15 pm on January 12, the nine prisoners escaped during a routine feeding exercise. Reports were that the inmates overpowered two guards at the brick prison.
The men then made their way out of the gate to the fence where they were spotted by a guard who raised an alarm. They threatened to chop the guard and then they scaled the fence. Immediately after the alarm had been raised a joint services response team was activated and within two hours there were between 20 and 30 ranks from the police and prison service on the ground. All nine escapees were recaptured within two weeks and some have since been charged and sentenced. Police also charged two of the officers stemming from recommendations made by a board of inquiry.
In February two prisoners escaped from custody while being escorted by police from the Georgetown Magistrate's Court. Frederick Peters was the first person and then a week later Wayne Rogers, 25, who was charged with robbery with violence escaped.
Peters, 29, had escaped while being held at the Georgetown's Magistrate's Court lock-ups. He had been remanded to prison on that day and was in the lock-ups when he attacked a policeman and escaped. He was chased but the police failed to re-capture him.
Also in February three prisoners jumped out of a moving van on the Canje Bridge and escaped. One was recaptured but up to yesterday police in Berbice were still searching for the other two, Samuel Fable and Derrick Busjith who along with Gavin Balkissoon cut a bar with a hacksaw on a moving prison van while being escorted on the Canje Bridge and escaped.
Balkissoon who was recaptured was sentenced to a one-year jail term. He was initially charged with being in possession of a smoking utensil. Fable is charged along with Seenarine Deonarine and Samuel Fraser, with the murder of a butcher, Gangaram Busjith last November at Liverpool, while Busjith is charged together with his mother and a brother for beheading a man at Black Bush Polder last November.
Three police officers have been charged at the Whim Magistrate's Court with allowing the prisoners to escape. Stabroek News was recently told that about one week before this incident another prisoner escaped while doing duties at the New Amsterdam Hospital. Stabroek News has learnt that the man was serving a one-year sentence for a minor offence and had already spent four months in jail.
On December 26, 2006 three other prisoners escaped while being held at the Number 51 Police Station by removing three boards from the lock-ups. Two of the men have been recaptured and sentenced to one year imprisonment each while the other prisoner is still at large.
Another prisoner who escaped lawful custody and is alleged to have shot and killed an Essequibo logger is also on the run. The escapee, Ronald Daniels called 'Black Boy' had escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on December 12 last year. (Stabroek News)
April 29, 2007
Two held in 'Old Higue' murder
Two persons were taken into police custody yesterday in a bizarre case at Bare Root, East Coast Demerara where an unidentified woman was murdered reportedly for being an 'Old Higue'. Police at the Vigilance Police Station said yesterday that there were marks of violence about the woman's body. They also confirmed receiving reports about the woman's alleged supernatural status.
According to information reaching Stabroek News, the woman was beaten to death early yesterday morning with a manicole broom (made of fronds from the manicole palm) and left on the side of the road. The police later transported the body to the Lyken's Funeral Parlour.
According to reports, some residents of the village believed that the woman had sucked blood from a baby leaving a mark on the child's chest. People at the home where this incident reportedly occurred refused to comment.
The reports claimed the woman was not in human form and regained this form when the sun rose. The police have since arrested a man and woman to help in their investigations after they were pointed out as being part of a group that beat the woman. When this newspaper visited the scene yesterday, the body of the woman had already been removed. However, there was a circle of rice and burnt grass in the corner of the road.
According to a resident, around 5 am two men who were on their way to work saw a person who they thought was a girl from the village. They reportedly called out to her and were greeted by a snarling sound from the woman. Scared, the men called out to other residents who ran out. At the same time a resident nearby discovered that her six-month-old baby had a red mark on his chest.
Residents surrounded the woman, who it was claimed at the time was just a ball of hair. They threw rice around her and some threw kerosene and tried to burn her, but she did not ignite, according to a witness. The residents then "waved" a manicole broom over the woman and asked her where she was from and she reportedly replied "Non Pariel".
She also reportedly repeated the words "ow me daddy" several times. According to this witness, the woman was not beaten, the broom was just waved over her. The witness said that as the sun came up the woman's body straightened out and it became apparent that she had on no underwear and her dress, was only halfway on.
Another resident who spoke with this newspaper claimed that the woman was caught in the act of "sucking the baby" and an alarm was raised. This resident said the woman appeared to be a dark ball with long hair in the pre-dawn light and was beaten with the manicole broom and a paling stave.
One resident said the woman resembled someone sold black pudding and pholourie at Enterprise, while another one said she was from Mon Repos. The consensus was that she was not from the area.
This newspaper overheard persons saying "is fire pot she land, she land in Afghanistan. I never see anything sah in my life, I can tell me children." They said they are convinced that the woman they saw was an "Old Higue". Up to press time, the dead woman was still unidentified.
According to local legend, an "Old Higue" is an evil spirit, usually a woman, who transforms into a ball of fire and sucks the blood of people.
She must remove her skin in order to perform this act. She can be stopped by grains of rice, which she is apparently forced to count and by being beaten with a manicole broom. Investigations are continuing. (Stabroek News)
Kidnap victim tells family: Don’t pay, let them kill me
Three months after he escaped his kidnappers, a businessman’s son was abducted at gunpoint while leaving a gym at Gasparillo on Thursday night. However, police set up a dragnet shortly after, forcing the kidnappers to dump Shiva Sieunarinesingh, 26, in a lonely area off the M1 Ring Road, close to Buen Intento Village in Princes Town.
The kidnapping occurred outside Body Tone gym, located at Harmony Hall. Police said Sieunarinesingh had just left the gym and was heading towards his Hilux van at around 6.30 pm, when three men ambushed him. One of the men put a bag over Sieunarinesingh’s head and dragged him towards a waiting car, which sped towards Harmony Hall.
At around 7.20 pm, Sieunarinesingh’s relatives received a telephone call from a man. The caller told the family Sieunarinesingh had been kidnapped and demanded a $200,000 ransom for his return. The man’s parents are the owners of Mona Sieunarinesingh and Sons Hardware and Mona’s Transport Ltd.
Sources said while the male caller spoke, Sieunarinesingh was heard shouting to his parents to desist from paying the money. “Don’t pay it! Let them kill me,” Sieunarinesingh shouted. Relatives said they later heard Sieunarinesingh being beaten.
A call was made to the Gasparillo Police Station and the Anti-kidnapping Squad immediately responded. Officers led by Sgt Harrilal and Insp Jagdeo, quickly locked down the area, blocking all entry and exit routes.
At around 7.35 pm, Sieunarinesingh contacted his family saying the kidnappers had released him at the M 1 Ring Road. Sources said the kidnappers had tried hiding him in a lonely area off the M1 Rig Road, but he put up a struggle and was eventually thrown out of the car.
Sieunarinesingh walked to the home of a resident where he contacted his brother. He was later taken to a private doctor where he was medically examined. Sieunarinesingh’s face was swollen and he had difficulty speaking. Relatives were tight-lipped about the kidnapping yesterday. One, however, said no ransom was paid.
An attempt was made to kidnap Sieunarinesingh on January 22. Two men had accosted him outside his father’s businessplace and tried to push him into a waiting car. Sieunarinesingh managed to knock out the gun from his assailant’s hand. Police are continuing investigations. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 28, 2007
Valentine’s Day bust…
One remanded, three on bail, warrants for four
ALLEGED SMUGGLERS: From left, Madhu (only name given), Shawn Ali, Joseph and Mark Chandra
Four of the eight men charged in connection with the biggest ever contraband bust by Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), on Valentine’s Day 2007, appeared at Providence Court yesterday before Magistrate Priya Beharry.
The quartet, Joseph Sahadeo also known as ‘Daddo’, of Lot 168 Industry, East Coast Demerara, Mark Chandra of Annaida Avenue, Eccles and Shawn Ali, of Lot 22 New Scheme, Diamond, also on the East Bank Demerara, as well as Madhu Bhagwandin, of Lot 36 Public Road, La Grange, West Bank Demerara, pleaded not guilty to two charges of fraudulent evasion of import duties and dealing with goods with intent to defraud.
The Customs and Trade Administration arm of GRA is alleging that, last February 14, the defendants were knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of import duties in relation to a quantity of smuggled assorted liquor on the m.v. ‘Lady Kimberly’, a certain portion of which was discharged at Rambarran’s wharf, Land of Canaan, another part of East Bank Demerara.
Prosecuting for the GRA, attorney-at-law Mr Gino Persaud opposed bail for Sahadeo but not his co-defendants. The lawyer said he was opposing the pre-trial liberty because Sahadeo made inappropriate telephone contact with one of the witnesses for the Prosecution, requesting that the latter not testify.
Other attorney-at-law Mr K. Juman-Yassin, for Chandra and Ramdin, said the last did not appear because a summons was never served on him and he is in the interior. But the lawyer said Chandra was invited to go into the Customs authorities and has been cooperating with them. Juman-Yassin said Chandra is a businessman who owns a guest house/hotel.
Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, representing Sahadeo, owner of Lady Kimberly, pointed out that the defendant is still on $300,000 station bail and has given Police information about his vesel that is worth about $24M. Prosecutor Persaud maintained, though, that Sahadeo called to induce as witness against testifying and may tamper with the individual, if successful with the bail grant.
Magistrate Beharry upheld the objection and remanded Sahadeo to prison but set surety at $200,000 each for Chandra, Ali and Bhagwandin, until June 4. Sahadeo alone is also charged with hiring a person to assist in the evasion of the Customs Law.
The Court also issued arrest warrants for Krishendat Ramdin alias ‘Pokeman’, Umbar Angad and Delroy Samaroo, both of Friendship, East Bank Demerara and Vinod Bhagwandin known as ‘Ajai’ (no address given either), who failed to make appearances on the joint charges. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 27, 2007
Aircraft crash: Baby, two others killed Patamuna woman braves jungle to find way home
Bernice Perreira and her five-year-old son, the only survivors in the aircraft crash in the Pakaraimas at the Kopinang health centre after they were rescued.
At right is Captain Gerry Gouveia who formed part of the search and rescue mission.
The baby passenger, pilot and a woman passenger of Kopinang have been confirmed dead, while a woman and her five-year-old son survived after the Islander aircraft crashed off the Pakaraima Mountains mere minutes before it could have landed Wednesday.The baby was found dead by its mother, Bernice Perreira, after she regained consciousness and rescued her five-year-old son in a two hour ordeal of getting him from under the plane.
The pilot, Rohan Sharma and a woman passenger of Kopinang village, E. Moses, were confirmed dead last evening by a search and rescue team which included members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Air Services General Manager Fazel Khan reported.
Captain Gerry Gouviea and the soldiers who formed part of the search and rescue operation.
Their bodies were left overnight at the crash site and would be flown to the city today, Khan said. The woman, who was seen on video taken in Kopinang, said she tried to help the pilot, but to no avail.
Perreira said when she loosened his seat belt, he fell forward and she assumed that he was dead. She also checked on the other passenger, but there was also no response.
The video of the woman’s account was shown to the Guyana Chronicle by Captain Gerry Gouveia who went on an early morning air search along with Air Services Limited (ASL) owner Captain Mazahar Ally. Sharma worked as a pilot on freelance with ASL.
Perreira said the last thing she remembered before the plane crashed was seeing trees to the side. Gouveia estimated that the pilot was mere minutes away from landing at Kopinang Wednesday when he crashed into the mountain.
Brave Patamuna
A. Perreira, who survived the aircraft crash along with his mother, is seen resting at the Kopinang health centre.
Gouveia said that after their persistent efforts in the air failed to locate the missing Islander, they landed at Maikwak, another mountain village. It was there than a young man was saying that he would not see Bernice again.
“But we saw Bernice walking in the jungle with her baby,” he reported another of the boys saying. Maiwak is about two and a half hours journey from Kopinang.
At hearing this, Gouveia and Mazahar Ally had the boys board the plane and headed to Kopinang. There, a search team went into the jungle trail the boys pointed to, and soon Bernice and her son emerged on an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) which was sent with a team looking for her.
Villagers helped her off the ATV, as she was weak from the arduous journey, and she and her son were taken to the Kopinang health centre. It was here that she related what had happened. She said the last thing she remembered before the plane crashed was seeing trees to the side of the plane as it ducked into the jungle.
She said when she regained consciousness, she checked on the pilot and for her children. Her baby was dead, but her son was alive and trapped under a log which had a part of the plane resting on it. She cried as she related taking two hours to get him out and then trying to find her way home.
“I (climbed) up and slide down, up and slide down”, she said, explaining how she covered the mountains. She rested in the jungle Wednesday night and at first light yesterday morning, she started walking again, straddling her five-year-old son. She was found at about 14:00h, 24 hours after the plane crashed.
After leaving her at Kopinang, Gouveia and Mazahar Ally boarded their plane with hopes of locating the crashed aircraft. They were finally able to do so after smoke was sent up by the search and rescue team which went on the ground from early morning.
The GDF said it was Wednesday evening informed of the disappearance of the Britten Norman Islander and its five occupants which included the pilot and an infant.
The Army said preparations commenced immediately to mount a search and rescue operation. At 22:00h Wednesday, a meeting was convened comprising representatives of the GDF, the Guyana Police Force, the Civil Aviation Authority, ASL and the airport authority to plan and coordinate the search and rescue operation.
Early yesterday morning, two GDF search and rescue teams departed Ogle Airport and landed at Kopinang from where one searched the area by private helicopter while the other operated on foot.
The GDF said it was in negotiations with the Brazilian Embassy, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to assist in the search and rescue effort with two helicopters. However, it would appear, this would no longer be necessary (Guyana Cronicle/Photos, courtesy Capt. Gouveia)
April 26, 2007
Dumped body identified as Crown St man
Relatives link demise to $1.5M bet
The body found on Hadfield Street, D'Urban Backlands early Tuesday morning with hands bound and throat slashed, was yesterday identified as 27-year-old Shermon Edwards of Crown Street, Queenstown.
Relatives of the dead man expressed shock over his demise and there are suggestions that he was killed over a large sum of money that he had won while gambling at the Blue Iguana Night Club. The club has denied this, saying that gambling does not take place there and that Edwards's death had nothing to do with the club.
Contacted yesterday, Blue Iguana owner Royston Peniston told Stabroek News that Edwards was a friend of his and he last saw him on Monday night. According to Peniston, the club was closed on Monday night, as it usually was, and Edwards was standing near a Chinese restaurant at the corner.
He said Edwards then left the area and he had not seen him since. Peniston told this newspaper that his club doesn't entertain gambling. Peniston said that he would never have allowed anything to happen to Edwards.
The police are continuing their investigation into this latest execution style killing; no one has yet been held. At the man's home yesterday his relatives and friends were standing in the yard discussing Edwards' death.
Misha Patterson, the mother of Edwards' two children was still in deep shock. According to the grieving woman, Edwards had worked at Stain Masters but left the job some time ago. She said he had no problems with anyone and was a frequent visitor to the Albert Street nightclub where he would just hang out.
The woman said she received the dreadful news from Edwards' mother who had earlier identified the body at Lyken's Funeral Home. She said Monday was the last time she saw him; she had later made several visits to the man's home but he was not there.
Meanwhile, relatives told this newspaper that they had received information that he was killed over some $1.5 million, which he had won while gambling. The man's mother was not in a condition to speak to this newspaper yesterday. Edwards leaves behind his parents Ashanti and Evans Edwards; two children aged one and five years old; four siblings and the mother of his children.
His body was found in the thick brush at the side of trench around 6.20 am on Tuesday by someone walking along the deserted road. He was clad only in white underpants. His hands were tied behind his back with a piece of string and there were three cuts to his neck. From all appearances he had been killed elsewhere.
The discovery of Edwards' body is reminiscent of that of 18-year-old Mc Doom resident, Devon Cambridge. Cambridge had been found in the same area with his hands bound with rope behind his back and several gunshot wounds to his head, neck and cheeks. (Stabrek News)
Roger Khan U.S. lawyer here to build defence case
mr. Robert Simels
Robert Simels, at a news conference at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, said he is here to seek to garner as much information as possible to help strengthen his client’s line of defence against 19 drug-related charges which the U.S. Government has slapped against him.
The initial charge `conspiring to import cocaine’ was as a result of an outstanding indictment. The 18 additional ones include conspiracy to distribute and intent to distribute; distribution of and possession with intent to distribute; international distribution conspiracy for the importation of cocaine on December 2003 and March 2004 as well as between April and May 2004; importing cocaine in March 2005; and importing cocaine on eight occasions between February 2003 and May 2004.
One of those charges, should there be a conviction, carries a punishment of life imprisonment.
Khan was nabbed on June 29, 2006, by U.S. enforcement agents at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad as he deplaned from a commercial flight out of Suriname from where he was deported after spending some time in prison there without being charged, and flown to the U.S.
Simels, who along with Miami-based attorney John Bergendahl, have fought unsuccessfully in pre-liberty hearings before Justice Dora Lizzette Irizary, presiding at the U.S. Eastern District Court on Tillary Street in downtown Brooklyn, since Khan’s incarceration in the U.S., yesterday said they are still not privy as to why Khan is housed in the special section of the prison.
According to the attorney, of the 1,500 prison population, 24 of the inmates including Khan are housed in this section where they are locked down for 23 hours daily and are allowed only one telephone call every 30 days.
In addition, on account of the restrictions, whenever access to a lawyer is granted, it can take as long as three hours waiting before the lawyer and client can meet in person, he said. Simels told reporters too of his desire to have at least three U.S. officials testify as witnesses for Khan.
They are Steve Lesniak, who was kidnapped while playing at the Lusignan golf course here, and DEA Agent Gary Tuggle, and Special Agent Jason Molina of the Department of Homeland Security and Michael Thomas, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown.
Tuggle and Molina were said to have information on Khan’s alleged kidnapping in Trinidad. Thomas is named as one of the officials present at the Ocean View International Hotel, Liliendaal, when Khan met U.S. officials to brief them “on his alleged efforts to fight crime other than commit himself,” according to his lawyer.
Simels said that because witnesses here in Guyana are reluctant to come forward and in the event the U.S. Embassy does not grant the needed visas to potential witnesses of his client, he proposes to seek the cooperation of the federal judge in having the prosecutor and other relevant personnel travel to Guyana so that the depositions of such witnesses can be video-taped and preserved video-taped to be used during the trial.
Simels contends that the charges against his client are “politically motivated” rather than drug-related and, and on the witnesses the U.S. Government says it intends to produce in the prosecution of Khan, he said some are known to be not credible, adding that some are so guilty they would do anything, such as testify against someone else to get off. He added that under this system even killers are walking free.
Simels yesterday confirmed that it was his client who was involved in the `infamous’ taping of former Commissioner of Police, Winston Felix and many others. Sources have told the Guyana Chronicle that the U.S. Government has been successful in its bid to get information from Suriname as it seeks to build a strong case against Khan.
Khan was held there along with three of his alleged Guyanese bodyguards, Sean Belfield, Paul Rodrigues and Lloyd Roberts when he fled Guyana, following the posting of a bulletin for him to present himself for questioning by law enforcement officials here.
Khan, the other three Guyanese and five Surinamese were held in what Surinamese police said was the result of a huge drug bust involving some 213 kilos of cocaine on June 15, 2006. The controversial businessmen and his bodyguards, who the Surinamese authorities at first claimed were part of a criminal organisation, were, however, all freed.
Rodrigues, Belfield and Roberts spent more than five months under harsh conditions in separate jails in the former Dutch country before they were deported to Guyana by way of the Corentyne River on November 22, 2006. The three were subsequently placed before the courts here and each fined $20,000 for illegal departure. (Guyana Cronicle)
Aircraft missing in Pakaraimas Baby among passengers, U.S., Army assistance sought
An Islander aircraft, along with its pilot and four passengers, including a five-year-old and a baby, went missing after taking off from Kato in the Pakaraima Mountains yesterday afternoon, and an intense search was expected to recommence at daylight today after a search last evening proved futile.
Missing are Air Services Limited (ASL) pilot Rohan Sharma, passengers Bernice Perreira and her two children – a five-year-old, A. Perreira and a baby – and E. Moses.
Residents of the remote village of Velgrad, off the Ireng River which borders Guyana and Brazil in Region Eight reported hearing an explosion, sources indicated, but a search last night failed to detect the aircraft emergency indicator.
The U.S. has been asked to assist with picking up signals from the aircraft’s Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT), Air Services General Manager Fazel Khan said last evening. The ELT could be activated manually, or in the case of a crash, automatically.
The aircraft, operated by ASL, under the control of one of its most experienced pilots, Sharma, went missing at about 14:10h. It was at that time that air traffic control at the Ogle airport, East Coast Demerara had its final contact.
Sharma picked up the passengers at Ogle airport, was headed to Kopinang, with a stop at Kato. Both are villages located in the Pakaraima Mountains. The aircraft made its stop at Kato but went missing en route to Kopinang.
Radio contact was made with most of the Amerindian communities in the Pakaraimas, but the only area where contact was not made was at Kaieteur. However, a source reasoned that if the aircraft had to make an emergency landing there because of the extremely bad weather which developed yesterday, contact would have been made from there.
The search was abandoned at around 21:00h. The Army has been alerted to the situation Khan said, as it forms part of the National Search and Rescue Committee. Khan said Sharma, with many years experience, is employed with ASL as a freelance pilot but exclusively with the company. (Neil Marks/Guyana Cronicle)
April 25, 2007
Police probing suspected executions Man found with throat slashed
The apparent execution of another young man in Georgetown yesterday triggered concern from the Police Force with a call for persons not to take the law into their own hands.
The discovery yesterday morning of the semi-nude body of the man with his throat slashed and hands bound behind his back, followed the apparent dumping of another suspected execution victim in Le Repentir Cemetery last week.
The body found yesterday on a roadway aback of Hadfield Street, Durban Backlands, Georgetown, was of a man of medium built, who appeared to be in his late twenties. He was clad only in white briefs and was barefooted. Police said he was about 5’ 6” tall, dark, slim and bald-headed. His throat appeared to have been slashed in three places and there were marks of violence, suggesting that he was beaten in the chest and abdomen.
A resident in the neighbourhood said that at about 07:00h, a young woman walking that route out of Sophia made the horrifying discovery. Terrified, she raised an alarm and people nearby rushed to the scene. Police, seeking the help of the public to identify the man, said they suspect he was murdered somewhere else and dumped in the area.
“The Force wishes to express its concern over the apparent execution of two young men and wishes to sound a warning to the perpetrators that if caught they will be met with the full force of the law. The law must be allowed to take its course”, the Police Force said in a statement.
It said persons having information in relation to the perpetrators of illegal acts by anyone are warned that they should not take the law into their own hands, but seek to support law enforcement by providing such information to the Police Force in order that effective action could be taken.
Anyone with such information is asked to call the police on 911, 225-3650, 225-6940, 225-6411, 226-7065, 226-6978 or 227-1149.
Three cops charged with beating arrested man unconscious
Three serving members of the Guyana Police Force appeared at New Amsterdam Court in Berbice yesterday, jointly charged with assault causing actual bodily harm.
Corporal Phillip Best, 44, of the Tactical Services Unit (TSU), Constable Nathan Fraser, 25, of Orealla Police Outpost and Constable David Mc Pherson, of Whim Police Station, pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Tejnarine Ramroop.
At the request of Police Sergeant Donna Grant Fraser, prosecuting, the trio was released on their own individual recognisances, pending a report on May 11.
The allegation against the three cops is that, last November 22, after they arrested Royston Alexander alias ‘Puppy’, on a warrant at New Amsterdam Ferry Stelling, they inflicted several injuries on him causing the man to be admitted, in an unconscious condition, to New Amsterdam Hospital.
Alexander, who had been charged with attempted murder, spent several days as a patient in the health institution before being discharged, the court was told. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 24, 2007
Security guard murdered at aquaculture farm
Baman Persaud
Baman Persaud had a gaping wound to his head and his hands bore lacerations while blood was still oozing from his nose and mouth yesterday morning. He was wounded in an apparent robbery attack and his lifeless, water-soaked body was found lying near a trench just outside the place where he was employed, with his bicycle nearby.
Persaud lived at Lot 258 Sixth Street, Success, also on East Coast Demerara, but the gruesome discovery was made about 07:30h by farm employees and some said, from all indications, it appears as though Persaud knew his killer(s) because there was so sign of forced entry at the blood spattered entrance.
Baman Persaud’s mother, Dhanwantie Nandram and a relative yesterday at his residence after they received the news of his demise
He had been working the night shift and a generator that was missing from the complex was recovered from amidst bushes in the vicinity.
Danwanttie Nandram, 70, mother of the victim, told the Guyana Chronicle that her son is usually back home about 09:00h every day and she became worried when he did not return about that time.
MURDER SCENE: the Mon Repos Freshwater Aquaculture Farm
“I last saw him on Sunday afternoon when he left for work and he seemed well and I can’t believe his life was taken so senselessly,” she cried.
Her wailing attracted neighbours who rushed over to comfort her and other family members shortly before the Police arrived at his residence. Persaud was described as a very quiet, reserved individual, who was the sole breadwinner for the household he shared with his mother and other relatives. (Guyana Cronicle)
Husband gunned down
.........minutes after promising to return
Dharamchand Mangra and his wife Gaitree on their wedding day
Twenty-three-year-old Dharamchand Mangra called ‘Loakraj’, of Bush Lot, Essequibo Coast, was shot and killed by bandits at Port Kaituma, in North West District, on Saturday. He had been employed by Jagmohan and Sons, of Hampton Court, also on Essequibo Coast, to purchase raw gold from porkknockers and other miners.
His wife, 21-year-old Gaitree Rabindranauth told the Guyana Chronicle that he left home about one month ago but spoke to her by telephone around 19:05h the day he died. According to her, Mangra said he would be returning home for his birthday on May 28.
The grieving widow said, the telephone rang minutes later and she was shocked to hear her husband, whom she loved dearly, had been gunned down by bandits. Mangra and another man were packing up stocks in their shop when two gunmen burst through the door and fired at them.
Mangra was wounded in the stomach and collapsed but the other man escaped unhurt and the robbers fled with $3M in cash and gold, officials said. The shot man was flown to Georgetown Saturday night.
Rabindranauth described her husband as very friendly, loving and kind said he was her best friend. She said they had known each other for four years before they got married last August.
She had attended Abram Zuil Secondary School and he was a student of Anna Regina Multilateral School but they met while attending Essequibo Technical Institute at Anna Regina in 2001 and also worshipped at Reliance mandir together.
With tears running down her cheeks, Rabindranauth said she will miss the dead man who was a dedicated husband and a “very wonderful person”. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 20, 2007
Woman burnt to death at Vergenoegen
Neighbours at the burnt-out house
The body of a 66-year-old woman burnt beyond recognition was early yesterday morning removed from among smouldering embers, after fire, suspected to be the work of an arsonist, razed her two-storey home at 13 Longdam, Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo.
Margaret Withrite, a pensioner whose agonizing screams of “Murder! Murder!” awoke neighbours in the quiet countryside neighbourhood around 02:30 h, died without receiving help.
Relatives said before neighbours could get out of their homes, a great commotion appearing to be coming from the top of her back stairway was heard, then her cries subsided. She was apparently trying to escape through the back door, witnesses surmised. Then, within minutes fire broke out from the back bedroom on the top floor of the building, quickly engulfing the home.
The woman’s brother, Henry Withrite, also in his sixties, said that firefighters and investigators found her charred body at the foot of the stairway where neighbours claimed they heard a tumbling sound. There are reports that blood was also on the stair way.
Her brother said was that after the morticians removed her charred body, fire fighters and investigators stumbled upon the lower portion of one of her legs which had apparently been cut off by her attacker before the fire started.
Meanwhile, neighbours reported that as the fire raged, a man on a bicycle was seen hurrying away from the scene. The police were alerted and he reportedly dropped the cycle, jumped into a trench, then escaped through a nearby cemetery. After the police failed to capture the man, they turned their attention to a house to the east of the crime scene and detained a man for questioning.
Margaret Withrite was keen on rearing sheep and tending her kitchen garden
Withrite, who lives farther down the scheme from his sister’s home, recalled that around 03:40 h. his telephone rang and an unidentified caller informed him: “A house next to Papso (Margaret Withrite’s neighbour) on fire!” Withrite and his wife quickly alerted the other family members and hurried down to the scene.
The brother said that even as he reached the scene of the fire, he was unaware that his sister had been killed. He said he saw the fire tender on the scene and enquired about his sister, but no one answered.
In a frenzy he tried to get into the yard, but it had been cordoned off with yellow tape and the police would not let him by. He said he was forced to wait until daylight when the investigators were finished with their preliminary work.
It was as the men were about to remove Margaret Withrite’s body that her brother and other relatives realized that she had not been rescued from the building.
The pensioner, who spent much of her time tending sheep and kitchen gardening, was described as a gentle, peace-loving woman with a great love for little children. Relatives said that she had lived there for more than 20 years.
Neighbours recalled seeing her out in front of her yard just the afternoon before, as usual “putting things in order” around the yard. Women stopped by, and they spent some time “talking old times stories”.
Her niece, Celeste Clarke, who lives in Georgetown, also recalled chatting with her on the telephone between 20:30 and 21:00 h. She did not know it would be their last conversation.
The seventh of eleven siblings, she was never married and had no children of her own. Margaret Withrite leaves to mourn five brothers and three sisters, and lots of nieces and nephews. (Shirley Thomas/Guyana Cronicle)
After four years… Family of kidnapped taxi driver still hoping
Kidnapped Khemraj Dalchand, whose corpse was never found.
His wife, Shakela Dalchand and their three children, grieving for their loved one since the disappearnce of taxi driver Khemraj Dalchand, still hope that the kidnap victim will return home alive after four years. Bibi Nazim, a cousin of the disappeared man, told the Guyana Chronicle, on Wednesday, that it is very difficult for them, not knowing if he is dead.
Dalchand, then 42, of Virginia, East Coast Demerara, was kidnapped on April 24, 2003, in the vicinity of where he lived while transporting a passenger.
But two days after his abduction, he made a brief telephone call to his wife, pleading with her to raise the sum of money and jewellery demanded as ransom while his motor car was discovered abandoned at Mocha/Arcadia, East Bank Demerara.
The cash and jewels were to be delivered at Victoria, also on East Coast Demerara, according to the kidnappers who contacted his family with the $5M demand for his safe delivery. However, following negotiations, the amount of $2.5M was dropped at a stipulated place.
Nazim reminded Wednesday that the family has had more grief because her brother, Lethem businessman Mohammed Khan was abducted on June 22, 2003 and killed but his corpse was found.
She said Khan’s son committed suicide, by shooting himself on March 10, 2004, at Lethem after being depressed over his father’s demise. Nazim said they wish for a closure with Dalchand, even if only to give his body a proper burial. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 19, 2007
Another Hescott executed
Body dumped in cemetery
Dave Hescott
The body of Dave Hescott was yesterday morning discovered amidst twisted metal behind the furnace in the Le Repentir cemetery with a gunshot wound to the head in what appears to be another execution-style killing.
Eighteen-year-old Hescott of Lot 155 Middle Road, East La Penitence is the fourth son of his household to die by the bullet.
Police said yesterday that Hescott was found around 7 am among some derelict vehicles in the cemetery with a gunshot wound to the back of the head and a puncture wound in the same area.
According to the police the young man was last seen alive around midday on Tuesday. The police are asking members of the public who might have any information about the incident to call 911, 225-6940, 225-6411 or 226-7065.
The curious gathered around the body yesterday.
When Hescott's body was found yesterday he was lying face down. It is suspected that he was shot elsewhere and his body dumped in the cemetery.
Persons living close to where the body was found said that they heard no gunshot or strange sounds during the night. His relatives say they are clueless as to why Hescott was gunned down.
The body was left in the open for more than two hours after the discovery while several armed policemen stood around and many curious persons flocked the scene. Wails and angry comments emanated from the dead man's relatives when they saw the body and his mother was inconsolable.
Many of those gathered expressed shock at the incident and wondered why another Hescott brother was gunned down. Persons sympathized with the boy's mother as she has continued to suffer over the years.
The man's relatives sat on an old refrigerator staring at the body in disbelief. One woman between sobs lamented "How much blood dey want from this family. Oh God how much blood they want. We only bury one November. Now another one gone. Oh God".
The dead man's sister, Sharon told the media that her brother is not a thief. "We got to get justice...Only last week police come and kick down we door and arrest Dave and Ryan. They only loose Dave Friday and now he dead". Ryan is another Hescott brother who had returned from Barbados when his bother was killed last November. The nineteen-year-old had made the decision to remain in Guyana.
On Monday, Ryan, a sailor and Michael Witter were remanded to prison after being accused of robbing a man of $1.8M and other articles at gunpoint. Stabroek News was told that Dave, who is one of eleven children for his mother, frequented the interior where he worked with his sister and had only recently returned.
In November 1996, police killed Winston Hescott during an exchange of gunfire at Madewini Creek. He had had a long criminal record.
The day before Winston died he and two others had hijacked a car and were hiding out on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. Police set up a roadblock and eventually caught up with them. Winston managed to escape and the other two were shot dead. When police confronted him a day later he opened fired and was killed in a shoot-out. Around the same time, Winston was killed another brother Adam Hescott was having trouble with the law.
In Adam's case he had escaped from the Camp Street jail along with seven others and had gone home. Police traced him there and he was killed during a confrontation on August 3, 1997. The police said he advanced with an ice pick, but witnesses at the scene and relatives said he was unarmed and was killed in cold blood.
The third brother Shawn Hescott was gunned down a stone's throw from his home on November 7 last year as he sat on a horse cart chatting with his girlfriend and another woman.
The two masked men who carried out the attack are still at large and from all appearances Shawn was their target as seconds before gunshots rang out reports are that one said "Is you we come fuh". (Zoisa Fraser/Stabroek News)
April 18, 2007
Bandits rob ministry of $4.1M
Four gunmen yesterday morning stormed into the Accounts Department of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, held up employees and fled with $4.1M in cash that was meant to pay workers.
Police said the robbers struck about 10:15h, some 45 minutes after two employees escorted by two security guards had returned from a city bank and were paying salaries. Police said one of the gunmen held up the security guard stationed outside the room where the money was and took away his .32 revolver and seven rounds of ammunition.
According to police, the guard was ordered into another room where two other employees were and all were made to lie on the floor. The three other bandits then entered the building, held up the employees in the room with the money and took away the bag with the cash, police said.
The robbers locked the two employees who had the cash in another room in the ministry and fled, police said. During the well-executed heist, two employees were beaten with a gun and wounded, sources said.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manickchand, told reporters that security at the ministry will be beefed up. She also expressed concern at the blatant daylight robbery at the ministry. (Guyana Cronicle) Man suspected of Linden attacks held
Police yesterday said they have arrested a man suspected of carrying out attacks on women in the Wismar area of the Linden mining town. Police said the 35-year old was held about 07:15h yesterday and has been identified as the perpetrator in at least one of the recent attacks on women in the Wismar area.
In a statement, the Police said one of the attacks occurred last Friday when Annetta Persaud, 29, of Block 22 One Mile Wismar was robbed of $15,000 and a bicycle. The incident, which occurred around 03:15 h that day, resulted in Persaud sustaining stab wounds in the left palm and right thigh.
Police also said that on Monday, at about 03:00h, Michelle Paul of Silvertown, Wismar was attacked and stabbed in her left breast and back. The suspect was arrested at Canvas City, Wismar, police said. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 17, 2007
Digicel gets GSM mobile licence in Suriname
DIGICEL, the fastest-growing mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean and new entrant to the Latin American market, yesterday announced it has been awarded a licence to operate a GSM network in Suriname, extending its seamless international mobile network and competitive offerings to 23 markets.
The company said the new licence comes as a result of the liberalisation process of the telecommunication market in Suriname, which started four years ago by the Government of Suriname with the drafting of the New Telecommunication Provisions Act. This Act came into effect yesterday, it said.
With a population of close to 500,000 Suriname’s mobile penetration is estimated at just over 40%, Digicel said.
The company said M.S.H. Hassankhan, Suriname Minister of Transport, Communications and Tourism, welcomed Digicel to Suriname stating, “We are entering an exciting new era in telecommunications in Suriname bringing more advanced services at more competitive prices and allowing more people than ever before to access mobile technology.”
“Digicel comes to Suriname with an impressive track record across the Caribbean. We are excited about their entry into Suriname and certainly looking forward to reaping the benefits of its customer-centric focus and innovative mobile telecommunications,” he added.
Digicel said it will enhance mobile communications and spur competition in Suriname by investing in a state-of-the-art infrastructure and offering innovative and accessible mobile services that offers real value to customers. (Guyana Cronicle)
Surinamese fined, deported for illegal entry
Surinamese Bob Para was fined $25,000 with the alternative of six months imprisonment yesterday for illegally entering Guyana. In addition, Magistrate Chandra Sohan, who imposed the monetary penalty at the New Amsterdam Court, ordered the deportation of the illegal alien.
Police Inspector Fazil Karimbaksh, prosecuting, said Para entered this country on April 10, at Number 78 foreshore, Corriverton, Corentyne, also in Berbice but failed to present himself to the nearest immigration officer.
The foreigner was arrested following a domestic spat with his reputed wife, a Guyanese, at Winkle, in New Amsterdam. (Guyana Cronicle) ‘Rambo’ jailed for cocaine smoking utensil
Magistrate Chandra Sohan yesterday sentenced Ray Anthony nicknamed ‘Rambo’ to one year imprisonment for having a utensil for smoking cocaine.
He had been arrested on suspicion in a simple larceny case when an April 13 search of his person, at Central Police Station, in New Amsterdam, Berbice, yielded a glass tube used for the purpose stated in the charge. Anthony pleaded guilty to the offence. (Guyana Cronicle) PI in schoolgirl murder case postponed again
The start of the preliminary inquiry (PI) into the murder charge against the man accused of killing schoolgirl Roshni Pertabsingh called Indira was again postponed yesterday, because the Defence Counsel is out of the jurisdiction.
Seenarine Ramnarine, who faces the charge for the June 2006 offence, was before Magistrate Chandra Sohan at the New Amsterdam Court in Berbice and the Prosecutor, Police Inspector Fazil Karimbaksh had three witnesses available. But the proceedings were adjourned to May 18.
The pre-trial hearing was previously put off on several occasions. The girl had been the night companion for her neighbour, Budhia also known as ‘Dodo Girl’, 65, whose husband was living abroad. Neighbours, who rushed to the house following shouts around midnight, found the high school student on a bed with her throat slashed.
Her underwear had been pulled down to her ankles and there were cuts about her private parts and a post mortem examination revealed that the 16-year-old died from asphyxiation, as well. (Guyana Cronicle)
Ex-cops due in court again June 6
The two confederates of accused drug trafficker Shaheed Roger Khan, ex-policemen Paul Rodrigues, 31, of Lot 14 ‘B’ Shell Road, Kitty and Gerald Perreira, of Lamaha Springs, appeared yesterday before Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle.
They last Friday appeared before Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and were granted $200,000 bail each.
They were not required to plea to the indictable charge, which said, last March 23, they wilfully attempted to pervert the course of justice by going to East Ruimveldt Police Outpost, also in Georgetown, to speak with Orin Obermuller, in relation to a matter under investigation.
Magistrate Gilhuys announced that he was recusing himself from the case because of his friendship with Perreira and transferred it to another court, before Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin.
Attorney-at-law Mr. Glen Hanoman, in a bail application for the accused, declared that they were merely trying to assist the Police ranks when the allegation was made against them. The lawyer said their whereabouts are known by the Police and their homes are searched quite regularly.
Police Corporal Robert Clement, prosecuting, pointed out that the matter had just been sent to that court and requested a postponement to respond to the Defence. Rodrigues and Perreira are now due to appear before Magistrate Williams-Hatmin on June 6. (Guyana Cronicle)
Another woman stabbed in rape attempt at Linden
A young woman is nursing three stab wounds at the Linden Hospital Complex, after she was attacked by a man yesterday morning, who she described as tall, very dark and slim.
According to the woman, she was in her bedroom, but had the door open as she was looking at the television, which is outside. She said the man broke into the house under the cover of the noise from the television and attacked her in her bedroom around 3 am.
She said the man attempted to rape her, but she began to put up a fight, even though he ordered her not to make any noise or he would kill her.The woman said that after struggling with the man for a while, she screamed, alerting others in the home. The man made his escape as her relatives awakened and went to her rescue.
It was after the man had escaped that the woman realized she was bleeding. She told this newspaper the would-be rapist must have inflicted the wounds during the struggle, but she had not felt them then. The woman was stabbed two times in the region of her heart and once just below the back of her neck. The man made his escape after she decided to scream causing others in the home to be alerted. (Stabroek News)
April 16, 2007
Body in creek
Monalisa abused often - mother
Daphne Stellingburg, the mother of 23-year-old Monalisa Rigby, whose body was fished out of a creek at Lower Kara Kara/Speightland, Linden on Saturday said that her daughter was constantly abused by a man she had a relationship with.
There were black and blue marks on her body when it was pulled from the creek and her pants and underwear were halfway down her legs. A rope with blood was also found nearby.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday afternoon Stellingburg recounted several occasions when her daughter was abused by the man. She said that her daughter had told her on several occasions that the man had threatened to kill her.
She said that on February 14th 2007, her daughter had asked the man to take her out for Valentine's Day but he refused saying that he had no time for that. She said that her daughter decided to give herself a treat and went out with some friends. "She seh she wanted to prove a point with he cause he never does want fuh carry her no place."
Three days later, the distraught mother said that she visited her child at her place of work and noticed her face with marks of violence. "I din bother fuh ask she nothing then. I made some spins and went back and see he at she workplace."
The mother said that another incident took place at that time. The man asked Monalisa for the keys to the house. He then pulled her bag away from her. She then asked him for her cellphone which was in the bag and he refused to give it to her. A fight ensued between the couple and the mother had to part them.
The woman described the man as very disrespectful. When the aforementioned incident occurred her daughter was encouraged to make a report to the police station and she did. This had led to the arrest of the man. It was at this point that the mother learnt from her daughter that he had been abusing her regularly.
She said that her daughter also reported to the police that on another occasion the man had called her at her workplace saying that one of her children was missing. When she got home he held her against her will, handcuffed her, placed a knife to her throat and reportedly abused her. Police officers went to the home where they were able to retrieve the handcuffs. The man later said that he found the handcuffs on the way to work one day.
Bernadette Nero
Since these incidents the couple was reported to have been before the probation officer. The mother said that on Saturday afternoon when she arrived home around 6 pm she was overwhelmed with emotion when she heard of the death of her daughter.
She recounted that when her daughter recently decided to leave her matrimonial home and return she was very scared. Monalisa told her mother that the man had threatened to kill her if she did not return home.
Monalisa's husband Clifton Rigby allegedly ingested a poisonous substance following the discovery of her body. He is still in a sedated condition at the Linden Hospital complex. A police officer was guarding him yesterday.
Over the last few months Linden has seen a string of vicious murders and attacks on women. Rigby's murder brings to four the number of women killed in such circumstances for the year. There have also been two cases where women were attacked but narrowly escaped with their lives. In all four cases men close to the women were implicated.
On April 7, 25-year-old Melissa Anthony was found murdered in a pool of blood at her Retrieve, Linden home by her nephew. Shane Anthony, the woman's husband, has since been charged with her murder and is expected to appear in court tomorrow. At the time of the discovery he was down the road from the house teaching.
But there are reports that the police received information that the two were seen fighting underneath their house the said morning. The murder shocked Linden and the charge slapped against the husband has divided the township. Both were members of the Jehovah Witness Church with Shane being an elder.
Then there was the murder of Nasleen Mohammed whose partly decomposed body was discovered in a coal pit at the back of the Wisroc Housing Scheme on February 13. The police have since issued a wanted bulletin for Odinga Greene known as 'Dingo' of 63 Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust in relation to the woman's murder.
Just before the discovery of Mohamed's body, on February 6, Lakha Latchmi Abrams, aka 'Pinkie', 57, was found dead in her bed at her Speightland, Lower Kara Kara home. Her nephew, 27-year-old Dexter Mosley has since been charged with her murder.
And on April 5 Bernadette Nero almost lost her life when her reputed husband launched a murderous cutlass attack on her resulting in her 18-month-old baby boy, Shaquan Nero, being chopped to death. The child was in his mother's arms when his mother was attacked at her aunt's Amelia's Ward home. Nero, who sustained chop wounds to her head and right arm, had told Stabroek News that she had left their Wisroc Housing Scheme backlands home on April 4 after she and the man had a misunderstanding.
Then on Friday last a woman was attacked and stabbed by a man who broke into her home at Block 22 Linden and tried to rape her. Reports are that the woman fought the man off and he dealt her several stabs. (Cathy Wilson/Stabroek News)
No such thing Police Force denies seeking help from Roger Khan associates
The Guyana Police Force yesterday denied requesting the assistance of ex-Policemen Gerald Perreira and Paul Rodrigues, who were Friday charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and are expected back in court today.
The Police statement came in response to a Stabroek News report of the court proceedings, in which the Police said the statement by Attorney-at-law Glen Hanoman to the Georgetown Magistrates Court “seems to be an attempt to sway public opinion to believe that there is some assistance requested and or is being given to the (GPF) by Gerald Perreira and Paul Rodrigues”.
The force categorically denied requesting their assistance or “colluding” in any way with the men, who are linked to accused drug trafficker Roger Khan.
The Police said the men acted in their own accord when they went to the Ruimveldt outpost on March 23. The Police claimed that they may have had an interest in the $90M in diamonds stolen from Belgian national Krim Detozedo in a passageway next to the former Palm Court restaurant, Main Street, Georgetown on March 2, 2007.
“The Attorney’s statement that the defendant Perreira was living ‘a stone’s throw away from the Commissioner of Police’ is untrue and an attempt to mask the facts,” the Police stated. The Police said Perreira is the common-law husband of former Police Inspector Fay Bremner who is a member of the United Housing Cooperative Society at Lamaha Springs, Georgetown.
The force said it remains committed to maintaining law and order in the society and will always seek the support of the public in fighting crime, but it must be done in a legal and professional manner. The two men were not required to plea to the charge brought against them Friday, which stated that they attempted to pervert the course of justice by going to the East Ruimveldt Police outpost to speak with Orin Obermuller in relation to a matter under investigation.
Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys recused himself from the case because of his friendship with Perreira and transferred the matter to the court of Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin. Their attorney in a bail application said the men were merely trying to assist the Police ranks when the allegation was made against them. Hanoman said the men’s whereabouts are known by the Police and their homes are searched quite regularly.
The men were initially refused pre-trial liberty but later Friday when attorneys Vic Puran and Adrian Thompson joined the defence, surety for the accused two was set at $200,000 each, pending their return to court today. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 15, 2007
Young woman found dead in Linden
DEAD: Mona Lisa Rigby
The body of Mona Lisa Rigby, 23, a seamstress and student of the Linden Technical Institute, was found floating near a clump of bushes in the creek at the back of the old alumina plant in Linden.
Sources said there were apparent marks of violence on the body and her pants and underwear were partly off.
Rigby moved last Sunday to live at the home of her father Galileo Da Silva after being at her brother and his wife, also in the Lower Kara Kara district. Her mother and father left their home to go up the Lower Kara Kara Creek about two months ago.
Residents living nearby made the discovery and when the husband Clifton Rigby heard some ten minutes, he rushed to the scene where he collapsed and had to be taken to the Mackenzie Hospital for treatement. (Guyana Cronicle)
Linden teacher charged with wife's murder
SHANE ANTHONY
Anthony, also a school teacher in Linden, was held for continuous questioning by detectives since Melissa was found dead at their home at 134 Hippani Oval in Retrieve, Linden, two Saturdays ago. They were married in 2003.
Melissa Anthony’s body was discovered by her nephew Tristan Grant in a pool of blood.
MELISSA-ANTHONY
Sources said two persons came forward to give evidence in the police probe while led to the murder charged against the husband. Detectives from Georgetown were in Linden looking for clues in the teachers’ quarters building where the couple lived.
Sources also said that the couple had a tussle in the yard not long before the wife was killed. (Guyana Cronicle)
Lethem worried about external crime threat
While acknowledging that crime in general is under control in Lethem, influential businessman in the area Mr. Daniel Gajie said the major crime concern stems from persons with criminal intent who live on the coast, especially Georgetown, and who take their bad habits and negative influence to the region whenever they visit.
“At the moment we have minor criminal activities in Lethem; we have a good team of policemen here (and) crime is under control in the area but our main concern is that persons and vehicles from Georgetown that are coming here are not adhering to our rules and regulations,” Gajie said.
According to him, these rules and regulations, which are seemingly more self-imposed than statutory, are that persons should ‘check in’ at the Police Station with their bus/vehicles (public transport) and their passengers.
“Criminal activities in Lethem are mainly, at the moment, coming from the Georgetown individuals who are visiting our area,” Gajie, who is President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told reporters who were in Lethem on Friday to cover the gala launch of Digicel’s service there.
“The influence they are bringing to the Rupununi region is not good at the moment and we are trying very hard to nip that in the bud.” He said the chamber is working very closely with the Police and the Customs and Trade Administration officers in the area to control the goods and products that are entering and leaving Lethem from Georgetown and the Brazilian border. “We don’t want to stop Brazil items coming to Lethem but there must be some amount of control,” he said.
Asked to comment on reports of guns and drugs entering Guyana from Brazil and finding their way to the coast, Gajie said while this is not prevalent, “there are indeed reports” that these items are being moved on mini-buses plying the Lethem/Georgetown or Linden/Lethem route. “…again it comes back to these mini-buses going back to Georgetown,” the businessman said.
The police, he said, made some arrests last year and more this year so far, where that is concerned. “The public transportation, especially the mini-buses travelling (to Georgetown)… these are the main culprits right now,” Gajie asserted.
Asked whether there were any environmental problems in Lethem that he would like to comment on, the outspoken businessman replied: “I don’t want to harp on it too much, but we are seeing a culture – again from Georgetown – where you just take your ‘package’ (litter/garbage) and throw it out the window.”
“Here in Lethem, and in areas in the mountains and when we go to the water falls, et cetera, we traditionally put our garbage together and we burn it, or we dig a hole and bury it or we dump it at the dumpsite; but what we find now in the resorts, like the one at Annai for instance, is that the owner had to pick up garbage and throw it back into the bus because the occupants threw their boxes outside the window.”
Noting that this is a major concern to the residents, Gajie urged the media to help sensitise these mini-bus passengers on the Lethem route “to please keep your garbage in the bus” or dispose of it in a manner and place that is in keeping with good environmental practice.
While pointing out that this is not a prevalent practice in Lethem since “you hardly see garbage lying around here”, Gajie said it remains an environmental concern that will have to be contained or eliminated instead of allowing it to get out of control.
He said the chamber is working with the Ministry of Local Government in efforts to acquire a garbage truck and to develop a proper dumpsite in Tabatinga, Lethem. Other than the occasional ‘Coastlanders’ garbage, Gajie pointed out that there is no pollution in Lethem – a place he said that is “still natural with fresh air all around and still one of the best places to come and visit or even settle down.”
EXCITING TIMES FOR LETHEM
Alluding to the significant improvements and developments taking place in the scenic Lethem area, the Chamber President believes Lethem is on the verge of a commercial and infrastructural take-off. According to him, “these are exciting times for Lethem”.
The businessman said the chamber is “very anxious” and “we have very high expectations” that goods from Guyana will penetrate the huge Brazilian market in a very big way. “We are preparing for that and we are preparing the companies in Georgetown to accept the challenge as well.”
The Rupununi Chamber, he said, has embarked on a project to construct a packaging and labelling facility which will enhance the marketability of local products like peanuts and ‘casareep’ (made out of cassava).
Gajie also said the chamber recently received an ‘enquiry’ from beverage and distillery giant, the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), for the supply of a large quantity of oranges, passion fruits and mangoes. He said the chamber has grabbed the offer and will be working hard to try and get production up and produce in bulk to meet the demands of DDL.
In terms of hotels and accommodation, Gajie said at least two new hotels are on the cards to be constructed in Lethem this year, one of which will take the form of an apartment complex.
He believes the real catalyst of the development boom in the Lethem and the region will take place on completion of the long-awaited Takutu Bridge, being built across the Takutu River which, when completed, will provide a crucial road link between Guyana and Brazil in the Rupununi. He said the bridge will not only transform but significantly impact the economic development of Lethem and the country as a whole. (Mark Ramotar/Guyana Cronicle)
April 14, 2007
Roger Khan confederates charged
... with attempted justice perversion
EX-POLICEMEN CHARGED: Gerald Perreira, left and Paul Rodrigues
Two confederates of accused drug trafficker Shaheed Roger Khan, ex-policemen Paul Rodrigues, 31, of Lot 14 ‘B’ Shell Road, Kitty and Gerald Perreira, of Lamaha Springs, appeared before Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys yesterday, charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
They were not required to plea to the indictable charge, which said, last March 23, they wilfully attempted to pervert the course of justice by going to East Ruimveldt Police Outpost, also in Georgetown, to speak with Orin Obermuller, in relation to a matter under investigation.
Magistrate Gilhuys announced that he is recusing himself from the case because of his friendship with Perreira and transferred it to another court, before Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin.
Attorney-at-law Mr. Glen Hanoman, in a bail application for the accused, declared that they were merely trying to assist the Police ranks when the allegation was made against them. The lawyer said their wherabouts are known by the Police and their homes are searched quite regularly.
Police Corporal Robert Clement, prosecuting, pointed out that the matter had just been sent to that court and requested a postponememt to respond to the Defence.
Rodrigues and Perreira were initially refused pre-trial liberty but, at a further hearing later yesterday, when other attorneys-at law, Mr. Vic Puran and Mr. Adrian Thompson joined the Defence team, surety for the accused duo was set at $200,000 each, pending their return to court on Monday. (Guyana Cronicle)
One year jail each for two captured prison escapees
Derrick Busjith
Magistrate Krishendat Persaud handed down two one-year prison terms to an escaped prisoner who gave himself away by running after he saw a police patrol van and one of the three escaped New Amsterdam prisoners, when they appeared in court.
Vishal 'Boy' Ramphal, 26, a labourer of Little India, Skeldon Squatting Area, appeared at the Number 51 Magistrate's Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody on December 26, 2006.
According to the facts presented by Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Michael Grant, Ramphal was charged with departing Guyana illegally for Nickerie, Suriname. He was deported from Suriname and placed before the court.
While in custody at the Number 51 Police Station Ramphal, along with two other prisoners, removed three boards from the lock-ups and fled. One of the other prisoners was recaptured shortly after and he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year imprisonment. The other escapee is still at large.
Grant said on April 9, while conducting a patrol in the area, police saw when Ramphal started to run after he spotted the van. The ranks did not recognise him but gave chase and apprehended him. When Ramphal was questioned about why he was running he confessed that he was one of the three prisoners who escaped from the Number 51 lock-ups. Ramphal told the magistrate he was sorry for the offence, to which the magistrate replied that although he expressed remorse the offence is serious and he still has to be sentenced.
Meanwhile, three inmates of the New Amsterdam Prison recently staged a daring escape by reportedly cutting a bar with a hacksaw on a moving prison van while being escorted back to base from the Albion Court. The drama unfolded in the vicinity of the Canje Bridge. One of the prisoners, Gavin Balkissoon, was recaptured and sentenced to a one-year jail term while the other two men, Samuel Fable and Derrick Busjith are still at large.
Balkissoon told the magistrate that the two men had placed a knife to his neck and kicked him out of the van. He recounted that when he was able to release himself from the handcuffs he jumped onto a "cow truck" and headed towards his home at Springlands.
Fable is charged, along with Seenarine Deonarine and Samuel Fraser, with the murder of a butcher, Gangaram Busjith last November at Liverpool, while Derrick Busjith is charged together with his mother and a brother for beheading a man at Black Bush Polder last October.
Police told Stabroek News that they are following new leads and would do whatever it takes to recapture the men. "We want these men. They are dangerous and they can do anything while they are out there," the police said. (Stabroek News)
Woman critical after gunmen attack
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Nadira Harriprashad and her husband Harrilall Boodram
Nadira Harriprashad was stabbed in the left side of her neck and beaten shortly after 20:30h when she and her fisherman spouse, Harrilall Boodram, 45, were about to close their small grocery.
Armed with handguns, the robbers took the couple into the bottom flat of their two-storey wooden house and tortured them for more after being given money and jewellery.
The couple’s 21-year-old daughter, Rosita Boodram said she was upstairs when her parents were attacked but became aware that something was amiss when she heard loud cursing downstairs and she bolted the door to her bedroom and stayed inside. But she came out when the gunmen threatened to kill her mother and father.
Boodram said she hid her three-month old baby girl under the bed and went outside the room where she was confronted by one of the trio demanding cash and jewellery. She said the gunman made her fetch a bag containing the booty and hand it over downstairs where one of his two accomplices was beating her father with a handgun while the other held her mother in the kitchen in a pool of blood.
“I saw him drag my mother up the stairs, she was bleeding profusely and they kept asking for more money and gold,” Boodram told the Guyana Chronicle. She said they took the belt off her father’s pants and tried to strangle him with it and they also pushed a piece of a steel rod into his ears and hit him many times about the head and body with guns.
Boodram said her mother suffered a gaping wound to her left side neck and she almost bled to death as her blood was spattered about the kitchen and other parts of the house, where the stains were still evident yesterday when the Guyana Chronicle visited.
Boodram said the bandits compelled her parents to switch off the external lights and Police arrived to see her being taken down the stairs by a bandit with a knife to her neck. She said, by then, her father was trying to carry her injured mother to the gate on the way to hospital after the two other bandits jumped over their back fence to escape the cops.
She said, although Police encountered the bandits in their yard after her father pointed them out, they did go not in pursuit because they were afraid to go into the swampy area behind. She said the ranks even mistook her father for one of the bandits but eventually left the scene without a confrontation.
Boodram said, had the Police engaged the bandits, the latter would have been captured in the swamp full of weeds that would have made their flight to freedom difficult. Fortunately, Boodram said her brother was away at night lessons when the robbery occurred, with the whole house being ransacked. (Michel Outridge/Guyana Cronicle)
April 13, 2007
Bandit shot dead at 'Blacka'
After robbing Sophia family, engaging cops and residents
Undertakers removing the remains of William Forde from the trench following the shoot-out between him and the police yesterday.
Cornered after a brave chase by residents across trenches and fences, a bandit was yesterday killed in a shoot-out with the police and another one captured after they had robbed a 'C' Field, Sophia family of over $500,000 in cash and jewellery and exchanged gunfire with the lawmen and a resident.
The dead bandit, William Forde, 34, of East La Penitence sustained two shots to the upper part of his body and died while taking cover in a trench clogged with weeds. His accomplice was arrested in the Meadow Brook area and is currently in police custody. The two men had run from 'C' Field Sophia to Guyhoc Park in a desperate bid to escape, but residents who dodged bullets and swam across trenches pursued them relentlessly.
The drama all started to unfold around 9.45 yesterday morning, when Forde and another man entered George Hanover's 'C' Field, Sophia home. Hanover said at the time he was some 200 yards away spraying water on a pile of concrete blocks. His wife, two children and a contractor were at his house. Hanover said Forde and his accomplice barged into his home, both brandishing handguns, and sprayed a noxious substance in his wife's face. They proceeded to demand cash and jewellery.
"I was spraying the water and then I decided to stop the engine of the water pump when I saw the contractor and two boys running towards me shouting, "Thief! Thief!" Hanover said when the men got close to him they informed him that two bandits had entered his house, assaulted his wife and stolen cash and jewellery.
Hanover said he immediately raised an alarm in the neighbourhood, retrieved his licenced firearm and set out to challenge the bandits. He said a number of persons came out of their homes, but he was the only one with a firearm. On seeing the crowd approaching, Hanover said, the two bandits, both of whom had .32 revolvers, ran out of the house in a frenzied bid to escape. He said he and the residents gave chase, scaling fences and swimming across trenches just as the bandits did, until they arrived at the back of Guyhoc Park.
"Imagine they run from 'C' Field, passed 'B' and 'A' fields and come all this way, but we did not give up. We were determined that we would catch them," Hanover declared.
A resident of 'B' Field Sophia, who says he is an ex-soldier, said he was at home around 10.30 am, when he heard two gunshots. When he looked out his window, he saw two men armed with handguns. The man said he immediately left his house as he figured the men were escaping bandits. He called out to residents and scores of them came out and joined him as they chased the men. One of the men managed to escape but the other, who was later identified as Forde, was cornered near the Lamaha Canal, popularly known as the "Blacka".
"Being an ex-soldier, I told the residents to corner him and we cordoned off the area on both sides of the Blacka and he couldn't escape and we tell him to come out," the man said. He related that by this time, more than 50 residents had joined the chase and they were all calling out to the man to surrender but he kept answering them with gunshots.
According to the ex-soldier he knew how many rounds were in the gun and as such he told Forde that he had two more shots to fire. "We tell he to give he self up and we would turn he over to the police but he was not coming out and the residents were afraid to go in because he had a gun."
The man said in the meantime, he dialled 911 but he got no response. He dialled the Sophia Police Station's number and got no answer there either.
All the while, residents were taunting Forde and calling him out while they pelted whatever objects they could find where he was hiding. He refused to budge. The man said he then decided to visit the East La Penitence Police Station and he did so by hitching a ride on a motorcycle. A detective and two uniformed police officers accompanied the man back to the scene and Forde's hiding spot was pointed out.
"As soon as he see the police he fire a shot and the police return fire and finish he off," the man said. "I didn't want the man to dead. We give he a chance to give he self up but it look like he been want dead," the ex-soldier said. He added that residents in the area must be commended because they came out and worked to find the bandits.
"You see people does always commit crime and then come and hide out in we area and we does get blame. I glad that people see he is not from this area," the man commented.
No sympathy
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene, a large crowd had converged and people were discussing the shooting. There was no sympathy for the dead man and they were only concerned with his identity. "You live by the sword you have to die by the sword. Dem does want thief suh dem have to die like this, dem only giving this area bad name," were some of the comments from the residents.
Forde's body lay on the bank of the 'Blacka'. In that area, the canal is covered with thick moss and he was dressed only in underpants. Later, the police left with a pair of white and brown sneakers, a pair of black pants and a red belt. It was not clear if Forde had been wearing a shirt at the time of his death.
Pandemonium broke out at the scene when the man's wife arrived and started screaming even before she saw the body. She asked a resident to describe the dead person and once given the description she briefly lost consciousness. Soon after, she started to scream and had to be pacified by residents.
Later, other family members, including the man's sister and his two young children, arrived on the scene. Forde's family members refused to believe he had been escaping after he had robbed someone. They said he was no thief and that his two friends took him to the area to die. However, they could not explain the fact that he had a gun and had fired at the police as the eyewitnesses said.
"All a dem saying how he does thief and dem ent even know. Dem saying that we use to get the benefit from he thieving but that ent true. He was no thief, he was no thief. And dey think anybody does want dem family to thief?" one relative declared.
Amid the standoff, Forde's young son and daughter were a picture of anguish; they held onto the hem of their mother's pants and cried heart-breaking tears.
"Nobody should be crying. He was a thief man and he was shooting at the police and other people," one man shouted at the top of his voice from the midst of the crowd. Family members, by then too distraught to respond, broke down in tears. Some lay flat on their backs on the grass and wept over the dead bandit known also as 'Buck'.
"Nobody could love you like I do," Forde's wife and mother of his three children cried. "But I will take care of y'all," she said to her children as she continued sobbing.
"This will make me strong," the woman, who looked to be in her late 20s, declared. Some of the residents said Forde should have been more responsible as a married man. "Imagine he baie, he gat on marriage ring and gat children but still robbing and shooting people," a dreadlocked man leaning near a shack commented.
Jacqueline Forde, one of the dead man's sisters, said he left his East La Penitence home some time around 7 am yesterday morning in the company of two friends. "They came for him -- two boys - but he did not say where he was going," the young woman said.
She said her brother was unemployed and was preparing to go to Barbados on Saturday. She added that the family has suffered severely in the past with another brother, Eon Forde, dying by the gun about three years ago. According to her, Eon was riddled with bullets in South Ruimveldt by unknown men. (Nigel Williams and Oluatoyin Alleyne/Stabroek News)
Bandit shot dead
One of two gunmen who robbed a family in Sophia, on the eastern outskirts of Georgetown yesterday morning, was shot dead in an exchange of fire with a Police patrol responding to the robbery.
Police said the two, at about 10:00h, forced their way into the house of a family at `C’ Field, Sophia, after spraying a noxious substance in the face of a man who was working on the premises. While they were going into the house, a shot was fired, and they also sprayed the noxious substance inside, Police said. The bandits assaulted a female in the house while demanding cash and jewellery, Police said.
According to the Police, Shenny Ramlogan was robbed of jewellery and $18,000 and Annie Ramlogan of $160,000 and jewellery. By this time, neighbours had been alerted to the robbery and as the two bandits fled, several residents, including a licensed firearm holder, gave chase and shots were exchanged.
Police said cops on patrol in the area responded and cornered one of the thieves who died after he was shot in an exchange of fire. Police said they found a .38 Taurus revolver with a live round in the chamber, and two spent shells at the scene. The body is at a city mortuary awaiting a post mortem examination, Police said. (Guyana Cronicle)
Way cleared for Suriname
to hand over Roger Khan material to US
Roger Khan
Surinamese judge John von Niesewand yesterday ruled that authorities could hand over to the US Government all materials and other documents concerning drug indicted businessman, Shaheed Roger Khan which had been gathered while he was detained in Paramaribo last year.
The US Government had indicated in court last year that it was seeking assistance from foreign jurisdictions in its case against Khan and that Suriname was one of the countries it was asking for help. Khan and three of his bodyguards were arrested during a huge drug bust on June 15 last year in Paramaribo. Khan was released by Suriname and then arrested by US authorities in Trinidad and Tobago. His guards were held in Suriname for several months and later released.
Khan has since been indicted by the US on more than 18 counts of conspiracy to import cocaine into that country. Yesterday, Khan appeared in court in New York and was further remanded until the end of the month.
In Suriname, Justice von Niesewand cleared the way for authorities to hand over proof and information on Khan's activities to the US, Prosecutor General Subhas Punwasi confirmed. One of Khan's lawyers in Suriname, Gerold Sewcharan, had requested a copy of the US request, which was made last year, from the local court. He had also asked the judge to forbid Punwasi from handing over the materials on his client to the US.
Sewcharan had also wanted to have full knowledge of the US request, but Justice von Niesewand refused the lawyer's request stating that the US has prosecuted Khan already and is likely to sentence him too. Punwasi is set to hand over some of the information on Khan. The remainder will be used as evidence in the case against the Surinamese men who were arrested during the drug bust last year June.
Meanwhile, Khan's New York lawyer, Robert Simels had approached the court requesting that he be allowed to record and photograph pertinent evidence against Khan already laid before the court. The US Government had indicated that it had no problem with the defence being allowed to record the evidence in court, but Justice Dora Irizarry in her ruling on Wednesday said the request for the materials to be inspected by Khan and a private investigator was granted in part and denied in part.
Justice Irizarry ruled that the inspection could occur immediately after the status conference, which was held yesterday morning but not in the courtroom. The US Government has handed over a number of audio wiretapped conversations and documented conversations involving Khan.
Michael Ramos, one of the prosecutors, told the court yesterday that the prosecution has furnished the defence with all available evidence so far in the case. The inspection and recording of the evidence yesterday occurred in a large room within the Marshal's office located at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse.
Justice Irizarry said in her ruling that notwithstanding the government consenting to the defence's request for permission to take a digital camera into the courthouse to photograph, "pertinent evidence, the request is denied. No digital or other photographic or recording equipment shall be permitted in the courtroom or other location within the courthouse," the judge ruled.
She said the defence should make arrangements with the government for photographing evidence at a mutually agreed location away from the courthouse.
Justice Irizarry yesterday also denied Khan a change of status at the federal jailhouse he is being held at currently. Simels had asked the court to review Khan's conditions at the jail, arguing that he was being held in a cell for terrorists and that there were a number of restrictions.
Addressing Simels on the issue yesterday, Justice Irizarry said she was not going to accept any more letters with regard to Khan's status at the prison. "I don't want to sound glib but Khan has to realize that he is in a prison and not in a hotel," the judge said.
She further told the defence counsel that court intervention should be a remedy of last resort regarding US Bureau of Prison (BOP) procedures. According to the judge, the BOP and the court do not have to drop everything to deal with Khan's varying requests, since he was not the only inmate at the jailhouse. She said Khan must exhaust all the procedures before approaching the court.
Justice Irizarry said the US Government has bent over backwards to accommodate some of Khan's requests including providing him with access to a computer while in prison. (Stabroek News)
Ex-cop dies in crash with Police car
Dead: Assistant Superintendent George Richards
Assistant Superintendent George Richards, 55, of Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
A father of three, Richards would have celebrated his fifty-fifth birthday tomorrow. Police said Richards, in the car – a silver grey Mitsubushi Lancer, licence plate PKK 3614 – was going north along Camp Street when a Police pickup going west along Croal Street crashed into the car.
Richards was injured on his head and face and was taken to the hospital bleeding. Also injured were Bruce Cummings, who was in the back seat of the car, and Constable Daniels, who was driving the Police pickup, and Corporal Rose who was in the Police vehicle.
Police said Cummings was admitted to the hospital while the two cops were treated for minor injuries. Police said Richards retired from the Police Force on April 1 last. A source said he was interdicted from duties just over a year ago in a matter engaging the attention of the courts. Police said the car was owned by Debra Grant of 111 Da Silva Street, Newtown, Georgetown.
Grant, with whom Richards was sharing a common law relationship, said she last saw him around 10:00h Wednesday. Earlier in the day, he had dropped her off to work then took her back home around 21:00h. He spent some time in the home and left again, saying he was going to pick up someone.
Grant said she retired to bed tired as she had been selling at her snackette during the day and was not aware that he had not returned.
Around 06:00h yesterday, she said she realised that he was not in the home, and was about to call his cell phone when she received a phone call from the police informing him that he had been involved in an accident and had died. (Guyana Cronicle)
Coast Guard joins fight against trafficking, smuggling
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guard is working closely with the relevant agencies to fight drug trafficking, fuel smuggling and piracy, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said yesterday. Among the agencies in the coordination are the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).
Head of the Coast Guard, Commander Godfrey George told GINA that, while preventing drug operations is vital, there are other things, like fuel smuggling, on which they are also placing a lot of emphasis. “So our operations are done jointly with the relevant agencies,” he said.
According to GINA, GEA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Joseph O’Lall stated that fuel smuggling is down from 30 per cent to 10 per cent and the Coast Guard has cooperated with his agency to arrest and prosecute smugglers.
George said, although the Coast Guard was unable to make any recent big seizure, drug trafficking continues to be high on its agenda. “We continue to place a lot of focus on this area. However, we are of the view that more intelligence gathering is needed in the fight,” he reiterated.
GINA said the government has demonstrated its commitment to the battle against drug trafficking through several initiatives, including the 2005 launch of a five-year National Drug Strategy Master Plan (NDSMP) to create a safer environment and equip law enforcement personnel with the skills and intelligence to deal with the narco-trade and crime related activities.
The NDSMP involves legislative requirements dealing with narcotics, money laundering and food and drugs and the achieved first year target included identifying funding sources locally, signing and ratifying international agreements/conventions, strengthening health and family life education and computerisation of the Immigration and Criminal Investigations Departments, GINA noted.
Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee recently said the government will be aggressively pursuing the NDSMP this year, GINA said, pointing out that Guyana, in 2001, signed a bilateral agreement with the United States on maritime counter narcotics cooperation and has bilateral agreements to cooperate on drug trafficking issues with its neighbours and the United Kingdom. (Guyana Cronicle) Husband sentenced to death for killing wife
THIRTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Lloyd Anthony McLeod was sentenced to death last night for the Mocha burnt corpse murder. A mixed Demerara Assizes jury unanimously found him guilty of bludgeoning his ex- wife to death and setting her corpse on fire in the burial ground near where they lived, at Mocha, East Bank Demerara.
Justice Claudette LaBennett pronounced the sentence of death by hanging after the jurors deliberated for more than two hours. Before the penalty was imposed, the prisoner was asked whether he had anything to say and he maintained his innocence.
The case for the Prosecution was presented by State Counsel Melissa Yearwood-Stewart in association with other State Counsel Faith McGusty. Defence Counsel Hukumchand had implicated another man in the unlawful killing and alleged that the latter and the victim, Beverley Ann Haynes, had a lovers quarrel over money the day she died.
Dr. Nehaul Singh, who performed the post mortem examination on the deceased, said she succumbed to a fractured skull and brain injury and the axe handle exhibited in court could have been used to inflict the head injuries, one of which caused her demise.
However, in answer to the jury, the pathologist agreed the fatal injury could also have been occasioned by the woman falling downstairs and hitting her head on an object with an edge. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 12, 2007
Coast Guard Commander calls for networking on piracy
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guard, following the recent spate of robberies, has intensified its patrols in areas where fishermen are prone to pirate attacks. But its head, Commander Godfrey George said there is need for an information and intelligence network to assist in tracking the pirates.
He told the Government Information Agency (GINA): “Tackling piracy cannot be done only by patrols. We must have a vibrant intelligence and information gathering network.”
“I am calling on all members of the fishing industry to embark on a drive to have an information network,” George said, noting that the recent breakthrough by the Police is an example of finding the source.
Police, earlier this week, arrested seven piracy suspects, at Fort and Hogg islands along Essequibo River, for their alleged link to the attacks on fishermen in the Atlantic Ocean. George said: “We have put measures in place to deal with the piracy situation and much has been done. In those areas where fishermen are affected, we have intensified our patrols especially in the Corentyne.”
However, he told GINA that, apart from increased patrols, the Coast Guard has been working closely with the relevant agencies and it is now part of the recently re-established Fisheries Advisory Committee. “We will be playing a major role in this committee with regards to piracy. We have also been working with the Police, Fisheries Department and the Transport and Harbours Department,” George said.
Over the past weeks, gangs of pirates have terrorised fishermen from the Essequibo Coast while they were fishing in the Atlantic and in North West District.
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud and Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee met separately, in February, with some of the affected fishermen operating on the Pomeroon/North West District coastline, GINA recalled. The agency said, at those meetings, the fishermen were reassured that the authorities were exploring plans to capture the pirates. (Guyana Cronicle)
Morgan still in jail
(NEWSDAY) — Guyanese businessman Peter Morgan, who is wanted in the United States on three drug charges, was remanded in custody yesterday when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates Court, Trinidad.
His attorney Ravi Rajcoomar once more said he needed more time to gather information about him for the court for the purpose of a bail application. The Chief Magistrate adjourned the matter to April 16.
Morgan was held at the Piarco International Airport on March 9 while en route to Guyana. He was returning to Guyana from Panama when two agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested him on a provisional warrant after being indicted on three conspiracy to traffic charges.
The charges are that:
1) Between 2001 and August 2003 within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere Morgan together with others did knowingly and intentionally conspire to import over five kilogrammes of cocaine into the U.S.;
2) During the same period he knowingly and intentionally conspired to possess and distribute cocaine into the U.S.; and that
3) He conspired with others to distribute the cocaine, and knew that it would be imported into the U.S.
All of the indictments are in violation of Title 21 United States Code Sections 963 and 960. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 11, 2007
Roger Khan loses bail appeal
Shaheed Roger Khan
Alleged narcotics trafficker, Shaheed Roger Khan, lost an appeal his lawyers filed a month ago challenging the New York District Court's Judge, Dora Irizarry's decision to deny him bail while awaiting trial.
The Second Circuit Appeal Court in Manhattan released its decision last week Thursday. The federal appeal court with Judge Sonia Sotomayor presiding found that Judge, Irizarry did not clearly err in finding that Khan should be detained pending trial.
According to court documents obtained by this newspaper, Sotomayor ruled that "upon due consideration it is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the district court is affirmed." "The district court did not clearly err in finding, under the factors identified in 18 U.S.C. § 3142(g), that Khan should be detained pending trial."
As to the nature and circumstances of the offence, Sotomayor said that the district court correctly noted that it is relevant that Khan is charged with a controlled-substance offence that is subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
With regards the weight of the evidence against Khan, the appellate judge said that the district court found that the government's proffer provided "sufficient evidence certainly to go to trial and possibly even to convict. This finding was not clearly erroneous given that the government proffered evidence that included cooperating witnesses who could testify to Khan's involvement in a drug organization, documents seized from Khan's home in
Guyana showing his involvement in drug trafficking, a drug ledger describing cocaine distribution, apprehended drug couriers whom the cooperating witnesses could tie to Khan, and documents found in Khan's possession that the government had produced in discovery in other federal prosecutions and Khan had no legitimate reason to possess."
Finally, Sotomayor said that the district court properly considered factors related to Khan's history and characteristics. The Appeal Court noted that although Khan has a number of family members in the United States, these family ties were insufficient to secure his appearance at proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Vermont in 1994 following his indictment there for being a felon in possession of firearms.
It also considered Khan's 1992 conviction in Maryland for breaking and entering, his 1993 indictment in the District of Vermont, his flight to Guyana in 1994 following his release on bail in the Vermont proceedings, and the ensuing twelve years during which he took no steps to return to the United States to visit his family or answer the charges against him.
"Given these considerations, the district court's decision to order Khan detained pending trial was not clearly erroneous therefore, the judgment of the district court is affirmed," Sotomayor said. The attorney for Khan at the appellate level was Robert Simels and Michael Ramos represented the US Government.
Khan, who was arrested in Trinidad and Tobago while in transit following a flight from Paramaribo, was initially charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the US. He was denied bail on his first appearance but Simels had objected to this and he moved to court in an appeal motion.
Simels in his submissions to secure bail for Khan had outlined details of the manner of his capture in Trinidad and Tobago after being deported from Suriname. The US Government has always maintained that Khan was a flight risk and opposed bail.
Khan was slapped with 18 additional charges back in February, one of which is involvement in a criminal enterprise. This charge could see the Guyanese serving life in prison if he is found guilty as it carries a mandatory life imprisonment sentence. The US Government had also indicated it has plans to hand over a number of audio wiretapped conversations and documented conversations involving Khan.
On January 16 this year Irizarry had ruled against granting Khan bail saying that she did not find that the defence had provided sufficient facts that Khan will be present for the duration of the hearing if granted bail. In addition she noted that there is probable cause to believe Khan committed the charges listed in the indictment. (Stabroek News)
City constable fatally stabbed
.........after row over barber's murder
Clifton Garraway
A city constable was on Monday night fatally stabbed by a friend during a heated argument on the Kitty railway embankment over murdered barber Clifton Garraway.
Dead is Kwesi Wilson, 27, of Sandy Babb Street, Kitty. He was taken to the Woodlands Hospital following the stabbing, but while waiting to be attended by a doctor he collapsed and died. His relatives said only one doctor was on duty around 11 pm on Monday when Wilson was taken there and at that time the physician was working on another patient.
Before the doctor could have attended to Wilson, whose workstation was Mayor Hamilton Green's residence, he passed away. Police have since arrested the suspect, who incidentally went to make a report at the Kitty Police Station following the stabbing incident.
Shondelle Wilson, the dead man's sister told Stabroek News yesterday that her brother and his attacker were good friends prior to Monday night's tragedy. "All of them used to lime on the railway embankment and they were good friends... he [the suspect] used to come home at us," Shondelle Wilson related.
Police, in a statement released by its Public Relations Department, said that Wilson, a member of the City Constabulary, and the male suspect had an argument over the deceased. A scuffle ensued during which the suspect was cut on his hand. Sometime later, while Wilson was approaching his home the suspect attacked and stabbed him in his abdomen. He was taken to the Woodlands Hospital for medical attention where he died. The suspect is in custody and investigations are continuing, the police statement added.
Shondelle Wilson said sometime after 10 pm on Monday Wilson and another man (not the suspect) were arguing over Garraway's murder. Garraway was allegedly shot around four times by a policeman who was the driver of Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee. The shooting occurred in February. It was alleged that Garraway, a barber attached to Gee Qu Barber Shop on South Road was shot after an altercation with a relative of the driver. The incident occurred in a bar on Garnett Street.
Shondelle Wilson said that her brother was reportedly in the vicinity of the said bar on the night the barber was killed and as such, he had argued about what really took place. During the argument on Monday night, the suspect joined in and it was at this point the two began to argue with each other and later a fight broke out. Wilson ran into a friend's yard but the man pursued him.
At the friend's property, Shondelle Wilson said, the friend told her brother and his assailant that they should leave his yard. Wilson remained and the other man was evicted. About 30 minutes elapsed and Wilson decided to leave his friend's yard and was heading home. His assailant took a different route and followed him. Scaling Wilson's back fence, the assailant entered the constable's yard and waited for him as he entered his front gate. It was here that Wilson was stabbed in his abdomen and on his left hand.
Shondelle Wilson said she was upstairs when she heard the commotion in the yard. She peeped out and was about to open the door when Wilson's attacker ran out of the yard and disappeared. She said her brother explained to her what brought about the stabbing incident and she immediately hired a taxi to take him to the hospital. Shondelle said when they got to Woodlands Hospital, the nurse explained to them that only one doctor was on call and he was attending to a patient at the time. She said they had been waiting for about three minutes when her brother succumbed.
Stabroek News was told that when Wilson was rushed to the hospital, his assailant went to the Kitty Police Station and reported the matter. He told ranks that he was cut during an argument with Wilson.
Shondelle said her brother had been employed with the City Constabulary for over three years. She said he was a kind and jovial person. The woman said that his death at the hands of a man he knew well was very shocking to them. "I can't believe that this is what happened," Shondelle said. Wilson leaves to mourn two other siblings and his parents both of whom reside overseas. (Nigel Williams/Stabroek News)
April 10, 2007
Port Kaituma boy still missing after three years
Tony King
Three years after the disappearance of a five-year-old boy from his grandparents' Port Kaituma home, his relatives still believe he was kidnapped. The matter is currently with the Probation Department and little Tony King is no closer to being found.
Tony's great aunt Telma Wong, told Stabroek News recently that the child, a pupil of the Port Kaituma Nursery School, disappeared on April 3, 2004. Recounting the events leading up to the child's disappearance, Wong said he was taken to his maternal grandparents' home at Seaby, about five miles from where he lived.
She said the grandparents went to their farm the next day and when they returned around 2 pm that day Tony was not there and repeated searches for the child were unsuccessful. Wong told this newspaper that the child's mother Jeanette Wong and his father were separated and he lived with his mother and stepfather at Citrus Grove, Port Kaituma.
She said the father had threatened to take the child, but following his disappearance he told them that he had no knowledge of the child's whereabouts. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Tony who is of mixed race with black hair can contact Wong on telephone number 609-8973 or the nearest police station. (Stabroek News)
Missing remand prisoner arrested at hospital
One of two remand prisoners, who mysteriously vanished from the Camp Street prison, was reportedly re-arrested at the Georgetown Hospital after he went there to seek medical attention on Sunday night.
Reports reaching Stabroek News are that Julian Bizzeth was arrested just after 9 pm on Sunday. However, repeated attempts to contact prison authorities and the police for a comment were unsuccessful.
This newspaper was reliably informed that a policeman stationed at the hospital knew Bizzeth well and also knew that he was a remand prisoner and upon seeing him took him into custody. The source said Bizzeth who has several health problems went to the hospital some time ago and was admitted. He reportedly discharged himself, only to be later readmitted to the medical institution. Again he discharged himself and then turned up on Sunday for medical attention. This was his third visit.
On March 31, this newspaper had reported that law enforcement officers were clueless as to the whereabouts of Julian Bizzeth and Simeon Sancho who have not attended court since December last and January of this year respectively. Both were on remand for larceny offences. Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys had highlighted the issue as both men should have appeared before him.
Director of Prisons Dale Erskine had told this newspaper that there were no records on Bizzeth in the prison system. However, he did say that he knew of a Bizzeth who was in and out of the prison but he was not currently in. Erskine could not say whether Sancho was in prison since information on that prisoner had not been communicated to him when this newspaper contacted him.
He had said that the police would have to enquire what happened to the men since there had been no escapes from Camp Street neither were there men missing from the prison. Someone, he said, would have to give an account. He said too that sometimes when one magistrate refuses bail others grant it.
Bizzeth was accused of stealing $1,000 and a cellular phone card from Manawattie Lakeram at Brickdam on September 29, 2005. He was refused bail and last appeared in court on January 18, this year before Magistrate Gilhuys. The case jacket does not show that he was bailed.
Sancho was accused of breaking into the dwelling of Bonny Wilson on November 12, 2005 and stealing one Citizen watch, a cellular phone charger and a kitchen knife to the total value of $8,150. He was before another magistrate and his case was transferred to Magistrate Gilhuys on December 7 last year.
He was supposed to be on $35,000 bail but has disappeared. There is no note on the case jacket to say whether someone paid his bail. However, if indeed he was bailed, he has since absconded. The police cannot say what happened to the men and arrest warrants were issued for both of them. (Stabroek News)
April 09, 2007
Bandits in Edinburgh shoot-out -cart off cash
Edinburgh, Berbice residents on Saturday morning traded shots with five armed bandits who robbed a Chinese restaurant and customers of close to $1M in cash and other items.
Police said that they responded within minutes of the robbery and searched the area but were unable to arrest any of the bandits. Police said also that they could not say whether any of the bandits was shot during the exchange.
According to a police statement yesterday the five men armed with guns robbed the proprietor of a liquor restaurant and two customers at around 10:15 am at Second Street, Edinburgh.
Gagraj Ramchan, a licensed firearm holder, was tending to his business when the men entered the yard. Upon seeing them he hid in a toilet, the police statement said. The bandits however proceeded to rob the customers of $2,000 and a gold chain.
They then confronted Ramchan and relieved him of his firearm and six live matching rounds after which they stole $300,000 from the restaurant and $250,000 from the upper flat and escaped on foot. An alarm was raised and residents responded and shots were fired at the bandits. (Stabroek News)
Linden teacher murder probe continues
Police were yesterday continuing the probe into the shocking murder Saturday of a young Christianburg Primary School teacher at her home in the Teachers’ Quarters at 134 Hippani Oval, Mackenzie, Linden. The half naked body of Melissa Anthony, 25, was found around noon in a pool of blood by her 16-year old nephew Tristan Grant. She was bludgeoned to death.
Police said her husband, Shane Anthony, was still detained yesterday as investigators looked for leads to the murder. A child in the area reportedly said a man in a black jersey was seen leaving the yard not long before the body was found.
Her husband was some 600 metres away, teaching students at his usual lessons at Lot 833 B Redwood Crescent, when he was detained by cops Saturday following the discovery and taken to the Mackenzie Police Station for questioning.
The couple are Jehovah’s Witnesses and the wife was due to leave home around noon for normal Bible study sessions, residents said. Her nephew, Tristan, would visit his aunt occasionally and said when he arrived there Saturday he called for her as the door was ajar and felt she was sleeping. The youngster said “I called out hard. `Inside!’ When I go in I see she lie down in a pool of blood.”
Grant must have arrived close to 11:30h, as another church member, Mrs. Hazel Benn, said she spoke on the telephone with Melissa just after 11:00h. Grant said he could not understand how the door was wide open and as he went inside, he first saw her feet. “She was in the library/ computer room and the door was open.”
According to him, the television was on loudly and she apparently was cooking as there was a pot on the stove which was alight. Her body was only covered with a white top and a towel was around her head, which was bashed in from the back and caused excessive bleeding.
Benn said she spoke to the teacher just after 11:00h and felt Anthony was not talking as she would normally. “She was unusually short (in her answers). But I seh she just wake up and when I put down the phone, I seh just before I left I gon call her back.”
Benn said she confirmed that they were going out. “Everything was `Yeh!’ I said `Oh like you just wake up’. She said nothing; everything was `Alright!’” This manner of conversing with Melissa came across as strange and Benn later asserted that someone else was probably at the house when she had called.
Her aunt Loretta Ashby fainted several times and had to be revived on more than one occasion as she could not bear to see her niece bathed in blood.
Police were yesterday also still hunting a 28-year-old Rasta man who allegedly slashed the throat of his reputed wife’s 18-month old baby at Amelia’s Ward, Linden, early Thursday morning, while attacking the woman.
Dead is Shaquan Nero, who was chopped just after 01:00h as his mother, Bernadette Nero, 29, tried to flee from her assailant at an aunt’s home in Amelia’s Ward. Nero was admitted to the Mackenzie Hospital from three chops on her head and two on her left arm.
The wounded mom said she Wednesday walked out on the man from the apartment they lived in at the back of Third Phase, Wisrock, also in Linden. She said she had been watching cricket on television and the baby was sleeping, when the man “came out from somewhere hiding with a cutlass.”
Nero said he began chopping at her and as she attempted to escape he followed, still wielding the cutlass and her baby was also chopped. When the man fled, the mother and child were rushed to the hospital but by then, the infant was already dead. (Guyana Cronicle)
April 08, 2007
Linden woman found murdered
Melissa Anthony on her wedding day
A young woman was found murdered in a pool of blood at her Retrieve, Linden home yesterday morning.
Stabroek News understands that the nephew of Melissa Anthony, 25, of 134 Hippani Oval, Retrieve, found his aunt lying in blood at her home shortly after 11 am. According to the teenager when he arrived at the house he was surprised to discover the door open and to smell food burning on the stove.
He said that after calling out to his aunt at the door he noticed her lying half naked in a pool of blood. When she heard his voice, he said, she looked straight at him and then breathed her last. "I got so scared and confused I just pick up meh boots and rode straight to the police station," he said
At the time she had on a white top which the nephew thought might have been a towel, and no underwear. This newspaper was told that at the hospital she was found to have several gaping wounds at the back of her neck.
The house where Melissa Anthony was found.
It was thought that Anthony was first attacked in her bedroom because the wardrobe's mirror was broken and there was blood all over the room.
However, she somehow made it to another room which was used as a library. She appeared to have attempted to stop the bleeding with a towel, which she was holding to the back of her head.
According to a close friend of the victim, she called Anthony some time after 10 am to make arrangements for them to go to bible study. She said that when she spoke to her she was unusually brief, and she enquired if she had just woken up.
"Everything was yea, yea, yea," said the friend, and Anthony did not even ask who they would be studying with. This led her to wonder later if the assailant was in the house at the time and was holding Anthony hostage.
After the report was made at the police station Anthony's husband was immediately picked up some distance away where he had been conducting lessons that morning. He is a teacher at the Mackenzie High School and Anthony was a teacher at the Christianburg Primary School.
Neighbours told this newspaper that they did not hear any screaming coming from the house. The nephew said that his aunt was a Jehovah's Witness. She was married in 2003 and the couple had lived in Retrieve since then. Police in E&F Division are investigating the circumstances surrounding Melissa Anthony's death. (Stabroek News)
Teacher murdered in Linden
Melissa Anthony
Residents nearby said they heard no noise from the quarters and shock spread through the town after the discovery of the gruesome killing. A child in the area reportedly said a man in a black jersey was seen leaving the yard not long before the body was found.
The dead woman’s husband, Shane Anthony, was some 600 metres away, teaching students at his usual lessons at Lot 833 B Redwood Crescent, when he was detained by cops following the discovery and taken to the Mackenzie Police Station for questioning.
The couple are Jehovah’s Witnesses and the wife was due to leave home around noon for normal Bible study sessions, residents said. Her nephew, Tristan, would visit his aunt occasionally and said when he arrived there yesterday he called for her as the door was ajar and felt she was sleeping. The youngster said “I called out hard. `Inside!’ When I go in I see she lie down in a pool of blood.”
Tristan Grant who found the body of his aunt
Grant said he could not understand how the door was wide open and as he went inside, he first saw her feet. “She was in the library/ computer room and the door was open.”
According to him, the television was on loudly and she apparently was cooking as there was a pot on the stove which was alight. Her body was only covered with a white top and a towel was around her head, which was bashed in from the back and caused excessive bleeding.
Benn said she spoke to the teacher just after 11:00h and felt Anthony was not talking as she would normally. “She was unusually short (in her answers). But I seh she just wake up and when I put down the phone, I seh just before I left I gon call her back.”
Benn said she confirmed that they were going out. “Everything was `Yeh!’ I said `Oh like you just wake up’. She said nothing; everything was `Alright!’”
This manner of conversing with Melissa came across as strange and Benn later asserted that someone else was probably at the house when she had called.
Hazel Benn who spoke with the young teacher on the phone not long before she was killed
Police were yesterday also still hunting a 28-year-old Rasta man who allegedly slashed the throat of his reputed wife’s 18-month old baby at Amelia’s Ward, Linden, early Thursday morning, while attacking the woman.
Dead is Shaquan Nero, who was chopped just after 01:00h as his mother, Bernadette Nero, 29, tried to flee from her assailant at an aunt’s home in Amelia’s Ward. Nero was admitted to the Mackenzie Hospital from three chops on her head and two on her left arm.
The wounded mom said she Wednesday walked out on the man from the apartment they lived in at the back of Third Phase, Wisrock, also in Linden. She said she had been watching cricket on television and the baby was sleeping, when the man “came out from somewhere hiding with a cutlass.”
Nero said he began chopping at her and as she attempted to escape he followed, still wielding the cutlass and her baby was also chopped. When the man fled, the mother and child were rushed to the hospital but by then, the infant was already dead. (Joe Chapman/Guyana Cronicle)
April 07, 2007
Baby boy killed, mother wounded
Police hunt partner
An 18-month-old baby boy is dead, while his mother is nursing cutlass wounds to her head and right arm after they were brutally chopped by her partner.
Police have launched a manhunt for the suspect who chopped and killed 18-month-old Shaquan Nero and injured his mother Bernadette Nero, 29. The suspect was still at large up to press time.
Relating what led to the death of her son, Nero said she had left their home at Wisroc Housing Scheme backlands on Wednesday after she and her partner had a misunderstanding. She said she went to Amelia's Ward to stay with her aunt and around 1 am yesterday, the assailant went in search of her.
She said an argument ensued between them and "my uncle and cousin came out to him and put some lashes on he and push he out of de yard and told him he could not be coming to dey house and disrespecting them by cussing up." At that time she was in the bottom flat of the house.
She said after the man was put out of the yard they thought that he had left the area, but after a while an occupant of the house noticed him moving among some bushes nearby. By this time, Nero said, Shaquan had fallen to sleep and she headed upstairs with the baby in her arms.
She said she had gotten to the landing of the top flat when the assailant attacked her. She said he chopped her in the head and was aiming for her neck when she fell back and the cutlass collided with her baby's neck.
She said it was the quick response of her relatives in opening the door that probably prevented him from further wounding her. Yesterday the police in E & F Division (Linden) said Nero had been cohabiting for about six months with the suspect until yesterday when she moved out as a result of spousal abuse.
According to the police press release, the suspect went to where she was staying and requested that Nero return home with him and she refused. He became abusive. The police said the man left the Nero's uncle yard but pounced on her several hours later armed with a cutlass. She sustained wounds to her head while the baby was chopped on the neck.
Meanwhile, Nero said that prior to the attack, while she and the man had been quarrelling, she had rang 911 and was told to go down to the station. She said it was impossible for her to go to the station while the man was still outside. The police never went to her rescue, she said.
After the attack, Nero said, she and her baby were rushed to the hospital in a taxi only to find no one to attend to her or her child at the outpatient's department. "I run through deh hospital screaming for help. Is when I was running in deh passage and fall down den a nurse came outta de male ward and assisted me."
She said that all this time she and her child were bleeding heavily and the child died while the nurse was attempting to start an intravenous drip on him. When he was checked by the nurse prior, the mother said, her child's pulse was slow. "My child turned and looked me in the eye and pass out," the mother said as she broke down into tears.
She said that she was told by police some time yesterday that residents said they saw the man walking out of Amelia's Ward with the bloody cutlass in his hand. He was wearing a black knitted cap over his dreadlocks, a black jersey with Bob Marley emblazoned on the front and three-quarter length jeans. He did not have on any shoes.
Nero told this newspaper that she and the man had only been together for six months and previously she lived in Agricola, while he lived behind Buddy's Pool Hall in Campbellville. They moved to Linden in October 2006. The suspect was not the father of her child, she said. (Cathy Wilson/Stabroek News)
Cops hunt baby killer Man chops mom, slits baby’s throat
WOUNDED: Bernadette Nero in hospital yesterday
Dead is Shaquan Nero, who was chopped just after 01:00h as his mother, Bernadette Nero, 29, tried to flee from her assailant at an aunt’s home in Amelia’s Ward.
Nero was last night recovering in the Mackenzie Hospital from three chops on her head and two on her left arm. The wounded mom said she Wednesday walked out on the man from the apartment they lived in at the back of Third Phase, Wisrock, also in Linden.
Nero said her relationship with the man had become abusive over the last six months. “…not in hitting at me or anything…but the words were threatening and that he would kill me and so on”, she said in hospital yesterday.
She said when he left home Wednesday afternoon to get food stuff, “I escaped with my baby, not his son.” She said she went to Amelia’s Ward to stay with an aunt and “he came there last night (Wednesday) and cuss-up and we called the police to come and get him but they did not come.”
She said she had been watching cricket on television and the baby was sleeping, when the man “came out from somewhere hiding with a cutlass.” Nero said he began chopping at her and as she attempted to escape he followed, still wielding the cutlass and her baby was also chopped.
When the man fled, the mother and child were rushed to the hospital but by then, the infant was already dead. Nero said when the killer first arrived in Linden he stayed at what she described as a "tabernacle" in Wisrock.
But his stay there was not long, she said, as he was unable to get along with others there and later began living with her aback the Wisrock area. The dreadlocked man police are hunting was described as short and brown and originally from Campbellville in Georgetown. (Joe Chapman/Guyana Cronicle)
April 06, 2007
Army captain held in alleged assault on female cop
A captain in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is being investigated for allegedly assaulting a policewoman manning the Grove Police Station after she did not deal with a matter involving a relative of his to his liking.
Stabroek News understands that the captain, who is stationed at Timehri, is in the custody of the GDF as both the army and the police investigate the incident that allegedly occurred on Wednesday night. Major Williams of the GDF told Stabroek News yesterday that the matter had been brought to the attention of the army and was being investigated.
Following the assault, the policewoman's uniform was torn, her lip bruised and her hand cut. The GDF officer also allegedly assaulted Natasha Stuart who had gone to the rescue of the policewoman on seeing her being attacked.
This newspaper was unable to make contact with the policewoman, but according to a relative of the woman, she is very traumatised and feels violated. The relative described the policewoman as someone who is always polite and said it was incomprehensible that she could have been attacked while she was inside the police station and dressed in her uniform.
According to the relative, it all started around 10.43 on Wednesday night when a man went to the station and reported that he had been beaten by another man, who fled after battering him.
The man, Stabroek News was told had bruises to his face and other parts of his body. At the time when he made the report, the female constable was in the Enquiries Office while another police officer, a male corporal, was sitting in the station but he was off duty and was about to go home.
The constable took the report and gave the man a medical form to visit the hospital to be seen by a doctor. She reportedly advised him that she was the only officer on duty and he should return the following morning with the medical when an officer would be available to go with him so he could identify his attacker.
The relative said the constable related to him that the man then asked for a telephone call and she dialled the number for him. As the man was speaking on the phone, the relative said, a senior officer from another stationed radioed in and instructed the woman constable to free the telephone line. The constable reportedly asked the man to discontinue his conversation and when she was ignored, she disconnected the call and hung up the phone.
The man reportedly threatened the female constable and the male off-duty officer and left. Shortly after, the off-duty corporal left for home. Less than an hour later, a car pulled up in front of the station, the constable told her relative, and she saw the man who had made the report approach the car.
Another man got out of the car and went into the station reportedly informing the constable that he was the cousin of the man who had made the report. After she explained to him what had transpired, the man, who had not identified himself, asked for her name and reportedly started to abuse the policewoman using expletives. The constable then upbraided him and told he could not use such language in the police station.
"He tell he is a captain in the army and he can do dah and more than dah," the relative said, adding that the man pushed his way in and punched the constable in her face.
Stuart, who was passing, noticed what was happening and rushed in to help at which time, the captain reportedly stamped the constable in her stomach before turning on Stuart whom he also assaulted. While he was assaulting Stuart, the constable summoned help and officers from Providence and Diamond police stations arrived on the scene.
Officers from Georgetown also went to the station and the captain was taken into custody. Statements were taken from the two women and an elderly security guard stationed at the Grove Post Office, who witnessed the incident but was afraid to intervene because of his age.
Shortly after the captained was arrested, army officers from Timehri approached the station and he was handed over to them. It is understood that because the captain is a commissioned officer he had to be handed over to the army, which will also conduct its own investigation.
"We want this man to be charged he can't go into the station and beat up a police officer and a woman at dat. If it was a man I sure he wouldn't a do dah. We want justice," the relative said. (Stabroek News)
April 04, 2007
Bus conductor remanded over gunpoint robbery of vendor
Leon Delph
A bus conductor who allegedly robbed a vendor at gunpoint of her cellular phone and money was yesterday refused bail by Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle. Leon Delph, 24, a bus conductor who told the court that he resides at 80 West Coast Demerara, pleaded not guilty to robbery under arms at the Georgetown Magistrate's Court.
It is alleged that on January 21 at Georgetown being armed with a gun he robbed Jovita Fraser of one Razr cellular phone and $43,000 cash. Delph told the court, "I am innocent of this charge and I want to settle the matter."
Fraser stated that she was willing to settle the matter provided that Delph does not attack her again. She added that she is a vendor and on the day in question Delph along with another person came up to her and said "give me the phone and all that you have." Her husband who was in the court stated that he too was present at the time and he appreciates that Delph is a young person who may need a second chance and his girlfriend is said to be pregnant.
Delph however maintained his innocence although insisting that he wanted to settle the matter. The magistrate remanded Delph and transferred his case to Court Five for April 11. (Stabroek News)
Man accused of having cocaine, obstructing police officer
Keith Massiah
A man who allegedly had 7 grammes of cocaine and obstructed a police officer was yesterday refused bail by Principal Magistrate Cecil Sullivan. Keith Massiah, 36, of 130 Pike Street, Kitty pleaded not guilty to possession of narcotics for trafficking and obstruction at the Georgetown Magistrate's Court.
It is alleged that on March 30 at Stabroek Market he had in his possession 7 grammes of cocaine for trafficking. He is also accused on the same day of obstructing 15537 Layne, a member of the police force, in the exercise of his function.
The accused was represented by attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson. His case was transferred to Court Five for April 17. (Stabroek News)
April 02, 2007
Woman who uses cannabis as a 'cure' gets 3 years jail
Magistrate Geeta Chandan sentenced a woman to three years imprisonment after she told the court that she is sick and uses cannabis as a cure.
According to the Fort Wellington Court report Jennifer Glasgow of Lamaha Springs, Georgetown, pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking when she appeared at court. She was also fined $10,000 or an additional 20 days imprisonment. Glasgow on Wednesday had in her possession 2.2 kilograms of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.
Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Hatty Anthony, told the court that the woman was travelling in a minibus which was stopped and searched during a police roadblock and she was found with the items that included weeds, seeds and stems.
Glasgow told the magistrate that she was sorry for the offence and that she is sick and takes the drugs to cure her fibroids. (Stabroek News)
Four held in NA post office robbery
Four persons have been taken into custody following the $8.2M robbery in New Amsterdam early on Saturday during which the Postmaster of the Nigg Post Office was shot. Sources said the men, including an official from the New Amsterdam Post Office, were held early yesterday morning.
Postmaster Kishore Sewlall, 39, suffered a gunshot wound to the pelvic area and was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital. He underwent emergency surgery with the aim of removing the bullet, but doctors were unable to do so. Yesterday relatives who were at the hospital told Stabroek News that the man's condition seemed to be improving and that he was no longer complaining so much about pain.
In the course of their daring robbery, the bandits threw Sewlall and the Postmaster of the New Amsterdam Post Office out of Sewlall's car, HB 1024, at the corner of Republic Avenue and Alexander Street in New Amsterdam. The car has since been recovered at Vryheid, West Canje.
According to reports, Sewlall was transporting the Chief Postmaster of New Amsterdam Gangadhar Munesar, 51, to distribute the cash to the various post offices in East Berbice. The money was to be used to pay pensioners on Tuesday. The two men were alone in the car.
Stabroek News understands that the two postmasters had just left the New Amsterdam Post Office when the incident occurred. According to re-ports, they had asked for a security guard to escort them but none was available.
This newspaper learnt that the bandits, who were waiting at the head of the street, threw a bicycle in the path of the car, forcing it to stop. One of the bandits, who carried a gun tried to force Sewlall out of the car, while the other unarmed bandit pulled Munesar out.
Sewlall, a father of two sons aged 13 and 14 years old was apparently attempting to resist the bandit when he was shot. Meanwhile, policemen scouring the area retrieved Sewlall's car near the backdam at Vryheid. The money the two postmasters had been transporting, which had been stashed in a box in the trunk of the car, was gone. (Stabroek News)
April 01, 2007
Postmaster shot in $8M robbery
Kishore Sewlall
Police said Kishore Sewlall, 35, in charge of the Nigg Post Office on the Corentyne, was in serious condition at the New Amsterdam Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery. Medical sources told this newspaper he was shot in the right side abdomen and his intestines were damaged.
Police said Chief Postmaster for New Amsterdam, Gangadar Munesar, of Nurse Ville, had failed to get the regular security escort to take the money to other post offices on the Corentyne. Police said he then asked Sewlall, his friend, who also drives taxi HB 1024, to take him with the money to other post offices.
They were at the corner of Republic Road and Alexander Street in New Amsterdam at about 08:10h, when two men who waiting there, held them up and shot the driver in his abdomen, police said.
The bandits pulled both men out of the car and drove it away, police said, adding that the vehicle was later found abandoned at Smithfield, with the money gone. The bandits were waiting just about a stone’s throw from the New Amsterdam Post Office.
Officials said the money stolen was to pay pensioners through the post offices at Albion, Whim, Eversham, Number 51, and Springlands on the Corentyne Coast. Sources said the two robbers were unmasked. The money was in a carton in the trunk of the car, they said.
Sewlall’s wife, Indira Kumar, said he left home just before 08:00h to travel to New Amsterdam. According to her, it is routine for him at this time of the month to uplift money to pay pensioners on the Corentyne. The New Amsterdam Post Office was quickly closed following the robbery which sent shockwaves across the town. (Guyana Cronicle)
Enterprise taxi driver murder
'Jungle Commando' freed at PI, rearrested
Shawn Richardson
Magistrate Brassington Reynolds on Thursday freed Shawn Richardson called 'Jungle Commando' following the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the 2003 murder of Enterprise taxi driver, Vivekanand Nandalall.
However, police rearrested the Bachelor's Adventure resident minutes after the decision was handed down, in a move which the man's lawyer describes as improper.
Up to yesterday afternoon, Richardson was being held at the Vigilance Police Station lockups. His lawyer George Jackman said that until the Director of Public Prosecu-tions (DPP) orders the magistrate to continue the PI the police's continued detention of his client could be deemed illegal.
Stabroek News could not ascertain from the police whether this was done, although one senior officer hinted that such a move was being considered. Jackman said yesterday he made attempts to find out whether the DPP had so instructed the police but was unsuccessful. He said should the DPP give such instructions the police would have to charge Richardson afresh with the crime.
Jackman, a former DPP, said that at the end of a PI if the magistrate discharges the case the DPP has the power to write to the magistrate requesting the records of the hearings and the statements. He said if after going through the records the DPP is of the opinion that a prima facie case was made out, the DPP could write to the magistrate requesting that he reopen the case and continue the PI.
Vivekanand Nandalall
Reynolds, Jackman said, discharged the matter at the end of the prosecution's submissions. He said he had not yet made any no-case submission.
In November 2004, Richardson, who was picked up during a police raid in Buxton, appeared at the Vigilance Magistrate's Court charged with the murder of Nandalall. The taxi driver had been killed sometime between October 2003 and March 2004. Richardson, who is 26 years old, resides in Bachelor's Adventure, East Coast Demerara.
Nandalall was kidnapped in October 2003 and his uncle paid a sum of money as ransom but the taxi driver was not released. His kidnappers later murdered him and his skeletal remains were found in the cane field behind Bare Root, ECD.
In early July 2004, DNA tests conducted in Canada confirmed that the skeletal remains, which had been found in Bare Root were those of the taxi driver. Jackman said yesterday that the police had gotten a confession statement from Richardson, which did not connect him to the man's murder. The attorney said that during the PI the police led evidence, with their main weapon being the confession statement.
Jackman said relatives of the deceased as well as two policemen testified. He argued that during cross-examination neither the police nor Nandalall's relatives could say for certain that Richardson was the one who killed the taxi driver. The lawyer said that one of the policemen even admitted that it was possible that Nandalall could be elsewhere while it was being reported that he was killed.
"No one knows whether any DNA test was done because no DNA evidence was presented to the court," Jackman said. He said even if a DNA test was done, he would not have agreed for it to be admitted as evidence in court because it could not be proven whether it was authentic. Jackman said the police said the DNA testing was done in Canada and they were trying to get an official from Toronto to come here and testify but this never happened.
"We waited for several months and no one showed up and so I argued that it was not fair for my client to be incarcerated for years without any proper trial." Jackman said there were several adjournments because of the absence of the Cana-dian official and so on Thurs-day Magistrate Reynolds discharged the case as a result of a lack of evidence.
However, the attorney said, as soon as Richardson exited the courtroom he was rearrested handcuffed and dumped in the lockups at Vigilance. His re-arrest caused a mini protest in front of the police station with scores of Buxtonians standing outside calling for his release.
Nandalall, who was 20-years-old at the time, was kidnapped while making a pick-up in Bachelor's Adventure. His car was found abandoned on the Annandale Railway Embankment Road and his family was contacted by the kidnappers who demanded ransom of $1 million. His family paid the ransom but he was never freed despite continuous pleas.
On March 12, 2004, a Guysuco field supervisor found the skeleton, with one bullet hole to the skull, about a mile and a half south of the Bachelor's Adventure Squatting Area. There was no other evidence than that of a lock of hair on the skull, which indicated that the deceased was of Indian descent.
Relatives had confirmed to this newspaper that they had received the results of the DNA test, which was done in Canada via Multi-Tech Laboratory in Guyana. The results showed there was a 99.94% probability that the skeleton was that of Nandalall.
An autopsy on the skeleton revealed that Nandalall died as a result of gunshot wounds to the head. A .38 warhead was found in the skull, one of the man's relatives reported at the time.
Jackman said during the PI the police had taken a firearms expert to court, who testified that Nandalall was shot with a .32 revolver. He said this contradicted earlier statements, which suggested that his killer used a .38 revolver.
The attorney argued that the police had no circumstantial evidence to prove that Nandalall was killed by Richardson, adding that they were wholly basing their case on the confession statement. The lawyer said his client was made to sign a statement, which he could not read and it did not prove whether the taxi driver was dead. (Stabroek News)