Annandale man acquitted of murder without presenting any case
Freedom: Shafeek Mohammed.
Kaieteur News – Former murder accused Shafeek Mohammed was released by the High Court yesterday after Justice Navindra Singh upheld a no-case submission filed by his attorney Latchmie Rahamat.
Mohammed was on trial for the murder of 33-year-old Ramkarran Mohanlall, a relative, on February 3, 2016, in Marshall Street, South Annandale, Demerara East Coast.
In conducting the no-case presentation, Justice Singh agreed that the case was one of his own defense.
He also noted the Court’s view that any degree of force used by Mohammed to go out and defend himself would be lawful.
Dying: Ramkarran Mohanlall.
As such, he instructed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty, freeing the man.
Last week, Latchmini Singh, the deceased’s wife, told the Court that she witnessed the stabbing incident that led to her husband’s demise.
The woman was among several witnesses called to take the stand by State Counsel Teriq Mohammed. In her testimony, Singh recalled that she had received a phone call and heard loud noises coming from the other end of the phone.
As a result, the woman said she went to investigate the purpose of the racket and found her husband and brother-in-law in a standoff at her Demerara residence on the East Annandale Coast. She explained that her husband was trying to enter the yard and the accused had blocked the entrance.
The witness recalled that the accused went to his car during the standoff and pulled out a hockey stick and tried to tie her husband to it. She said that her husband had retreated to his car, which was parked on the road but they continued to argue and threaten each other. The woman recalled, shortly thereafter, a fight broke out between the two men and as they took part in the scuffle, the accused pulled a tear out of its center and dealt with her husband several stabs about his body .
She said that shortly after the accused got into his car and drove away, she and some of her neighbors hired a car to take her husband to the hospital. While en route to the hospital, the car crashed, hit a railway and skidded off the road. The witness noted that the car was still used for transport to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where her husband was pronounced dead.
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