Retrial order for duo sentenced to 75 years for murder
Randy Isaacs.
Devon Thomas.
Kaieteur News – The Court of Appeal has ordered remand to Devon Thomas and Randy Isaacs, who were each sentenced to 75 years’ imprisonment for murdering East Coast Demerara businessman Kumar Mohabir.
In 2015, the duo had faced a case before Justice Navindra Singh in the High Court in Georgetown. They were sentenced after a 12-member mixed jury found them guilty of the crime.
Through it, the attorney-at-law, Nigel Hughes, Thomas and Isaacs moved to the appeals court to challenge the conviction and sentence.
Among other things, they argued that the trial judge erred in law in failing to instruct the jury to disregard and / or not attach any weight to the evidence relating to the identification parade because it was conducted in unfair circumstances.
According to the duo, the trial judge committed another error in law in not adequately providing and / or explaining their defense to the jury.
In passing her verdict, the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, agreed that the defense was not put before the jury adequately, taking into account the evidence presented during the trial.
As such, he set aside the conviction and sentence and ordered a reincarnation at the next practical sitting of the Demerara assassination.
Back in 2015, Devon Thomas, 22, a construction worker from Lot 95 Better Hope South, Demerara East Coast and his co-accused, Randy Isaac, were sentenced to 19 years.
The duo has been charged with the murder of Mohabir, called “Dusky” and “Fire Link,” from Lot 7 Fernandes Street, Enterprise, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
He was brutally assaulted and stabbed by a drunk crowd on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, on February 23, 2013.
The man, who operated a tent rental business at his home, was attacked after he went to the location to collect a tent he was renting to his neighbors for the Republic Day celebrations.
He was stabbed by a group of drunken people, armed with broken bottles. The businessman was subsequently rushed to Woodlands Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment.
Following the incident, the victim’s older brother Navindra Mohabir, who was also injured in the attack, identified two suspects (Thomas and Isaac) as the persons involved in the incident, which led to his death.