THE  Lusignan massacre  trial jury on Friday  freed the two  murder accused, Mark Royden Williams, called ‘Smallie’, and James Anthony Hyles, called ‘Sally’, who had allegedly gunned down 11 members of the community on January 26, 2008.

The  jury took 7 ½  hours  to reach a  unanimous verdict of not guilty.
But the State has appealed against the verdict of acquittal under Section 33C of the Court of Appeal Act, Chapter 3:01 as amended by the Court  of Appeal (Amendment) Act No. 4  of 2010.
Senior State Prosecutor  Judith Gildharie-Mursalin told the court that Williams was also charged with the Bartica massacre and would
have  to be sent back to  prison.
But defence counsel declared that Hyles, who now has a  clean record,   by the jury’s verdict  was entitled to bail to ensure that he attends  his appeal.
Attorney-at-law Nigel  Hughes for Hyles said that his client was not properly  before the  court since he had to take constitutional proceedings where the  DPP had on two occasions  ordered the magistrate to take additional evidence which had caused the Chief  Justice to be critical      of the DPP.
However after Hughes satisfied the court that  Hyles  was entitled to  bail,  the  judge granted  bail in the  sum of $100,000 in respect  to  each  charge  in the 11-count indictment, totaling $1.1M.
Hyles  was also told  by the judge  that  he would have  to report every Monday  to the Vigilance Police Station until  the  appeal  is completed.
Presiding judge Justice Navindra Singh summed up the evidence in  two hours before handing  over the case to the  jury for their consideration and verdict.
In his address  on  behalf of  Hyles, Hughes had told the  jury  that there was not  a  scintilla  of evidence  against his  client and accused  the  police  of creating  evidence  through Durwin Wright who has been accused  of  31 murders   to fabricate evidence against the accused.
Roger  Yearwood representing  the  number one  accused, Williams,  asked  the jury to   acquit his  client on the  grounds  that  the  police after failing to find the killers   who had gunned down  the  11 people  at Lusignan, had beaten a confession out of Williams. He then  urged them to return a not guilty  verdict in favour of his client.
The victims were Clarence Thomas, 48, Vanessa Thomas, 12, Ron Thomas, 11, Mohandan Goordat, 32, Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Seegobin Harilall, 4; Dhanwajie Ramsingh, 52; Seecharran Rooplall, 56; Raywattie Ramsingh, 11; Shazam Mohammed, 22; and Shaleem Baksh, 52.
Gildharie-Mursalin in her final address on behalf of the prosecution,  accused the defence  lawyers  of introducing red herrings  to  confuse the jury and urged  the jury to return a verdict in accordance  with  the  evidence in court and the oath they had taken.