Mother killed children because lover does not like kids
JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes at the Demerara Assizes yesterday suspended sentence on double murder accused Joanna Danhai to await a probation report on the mother who had pleaded not guilty to the murder of her two children, but guilty of unlawfully killing them.

Joanna Danhai is escorted to prison where she is remanded to await probation report and sentence on February 8, for the unlawful killing of her two children, Jamal and Keisha.

The court heard that the killing came after a man the woman was madly in love with told her, “I love you , but I do not like your two children.”

It was after receiving this news from her new lover that the woman rushed to a store and purchased insecticide poison which she administered to her children with Fruta drinks.

They became ill, vomited and frothed from the mouths and were rushed to hospital by a neighbour and their mother who reported that her children were victims of food poisoning.

After the children died in hospital, a young woman who had sold the poison to the mother on request, exposed the story and the police began investigating.

During the investigation, the woman explained that the woman was lying on her, but later admitted that she had done so and took the police to her home where the bottle with the remainder of poison and two plastic glasses which contained the fatal doses of poison that were given to the children were taken from a pit latrine.

This was a narration of the facts from leader of the prosecution team of lawyers, Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin in association with Miss Shivan Balcharran and Miss Prithima Kissoon.

At the beginning of the trial some days ago, the accused, represented by Mr. James Bond, had pleaded not guilty.

The judge began holding a voir dire (a trial within a trial) after lawyer Bond objected to a confession statement which the prosecution was about to present. Bond was contending that the statement was obtained by oppression and was not free and voluntary.

But at the ruling yesterday, the Judge said that he found that the statement was obtained freely and voluntarily and declared that it would be tendered in evidence.

It was after this that the accused through her lawyer declared her intention to change her plea, stating that she was not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser counts of manslaughter in respect to her two children, Keisha, nine, and Jamal, seven.

The judge then directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter in relation to the two counts.

At this stage, the defence counsel urged the judge to postpone sentence to await a probation report and plea in mitigation.

The judge agreed to the request.
Mrs. Girdharie-Mursalin had told the jury that in the year 2005, Joanna Danhai met one Shevon Hinds with whom she developed a romantic relationship. As a result, in June, 2005, she and her children moved in with Hinds at his mother’s home at Lot 1 Farm, East Bank, Essequibo.

Joanna and Hinds later developed problems in the relationship and he locked her and her children out of the bedroom.

On August 29, 2005, Joanna went to Bukhan’s General Store at Parika where she asked the store clerk Monica Thompson whether they had “Cedal” poison. Monica told her that they had “Monitor” instead. Thompson showed Joanna the Monitor poison which she purchased.

On August 30th Joanna gave her children their dinner and shortly after both children complained of having belly pains and began vomiting.

The children were taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where Jamal Danhai died. Keisha died the following day.

According to the prosecutor, the post-mortem examinations were conducted by forensic Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh who found that both Jamal and Keisha Danhai died from Pesticide poisoning.

Stomach contents taken from the bodies were removed by the doctor and forwarded to analyst Steven Greaves who found that they contained a mixture of two pesticides, Gramaxzone and Monitor.

On September 12, 2005, the month following the incident, Joanna confessed by giving a written statement to the police. She stated in that statement that she went and bought a yellowish poison in a bottle from a store at Vreed-en-Hoop. She then said that on the 30th she opened the bottle with the poison and threw some in two separate plastic glasses with Fruta orange juice and gave this to her two children.