At Berbice Assizes…
JUSTICE Diana Insanally yesterday upheld submissions by Defence Counsel Kim Kyte-John and directed the mixed jury, at the Berbice Assizes, to formally return a not guilty verdict in favour of the accused in the borrowed compact disc (CD) murder case.

Consequently, Dhanesh Raymond alias ‘Fat Boy’ was freed of the indictment for the unlawful killing of his friend, Cliff Alexander Chinamootoo, who died of a stab wound after they fought over the loan on June 4, 2005.

The judge admonished Raymond, before discharging him, to stay away from alcohol, go to church and live a reformed life.

Raymond, who was in custody since June 19, 2005, rushed into the arms of his waiting mother and they exchanged hugs and kisses before leaving the courtroom.

Meanwhile, Minette Chinamootoo, mother of the deceased, said: “The matter is in the hands of God, who is the final judge.”

She told the Guyana Chronicle that she was very attached to her son, being her last child who was expected to take up residence in the United States (U.S.) with his American wife.

In her argument on Tuesday, Kyte-John submitted that the Prosecution did not contradict the caution statement made by the accused which disclosed two complete defences.

Additionally, Defence Counsel said, if the jury believed the story, they would eventually have to acquit Raymond and, if they did not believe it, there was no other evidence from which they could draw an inference of guilt.

Kyte-John also contended that, if the case went to them, the jurors would have had to speculate, which was a dangerous course for them to take.

She noted there was no eyewitness and the fact that the wounded man alleged that Raymond stabbed him could not assist the jury.

Kyte-John maintained that the Prosecution failed to prove that the injury was not the result of an accident.

Replying State Prosecutor Ganesh Hira said the caution statement simply revealed that the deceased was injured during a scramble with the accused but did not disclose whether the former was wounded by the latter.

He admitted, too, that it was not known if the victim suffered the wound accidentally and that the attestation attributed to the accused was only testimony that chronicled the circumstances of the incident.

What could be inferred, Hira said, was that the fatal wound was accidentally inflicted during the struggle in which the two men were involved on the ground.

He acknowledged that neither the State nor the Court was in a position to tell the jury that the accused stabbed the deceased and that the evidence presented by the Prosecution was so tenuous that, taken at its highest, a jury properly directed could not convict.

Hira concurred that, in good conscience, it might be improper for the case to go to the jury.