Another brother testifies in Prison Officer murder case

TWO more witnesses testified in the fire burning murder case at the Berbice Assizes Thursday, before State Prosecutor Dionne Mc Cammon sought and obtained an adjournment, to Tuesday.

Justice Winston Patterson granted the application after the Prosecution had exhausted its witnesses for the day.

Mc Cammon said, of the remaining witnesses, Edith Clarke is out of the jurisdiction and Police Detective Corporal Dharmendra Indrapaul is still recovering from gunshot injuries suffered during an incident at Brickdam Police Station, in Georgetown, last year.

However, the Prosecutor proposes to put the depositions of the two in evidence on Tuesday and Defence Counsel Charrandas Persaud did not object.

The lone remaining witness, Government pathologist Dr, Nehaul Sigh is unavailable until Tuesday morning, Mc Cammon said.

Earlier Thursday, Police Detective Corporal Lennox Sears recalled receiving a report about the unlawful killing of Prison Officer Lincoln Gilead.

The witness said he left Reliance Police Station shortly after 02:15 h that day and went to the crime scene, where he saw a partly burnt mattress and three chairs, before contacting Detective Sergeant Charles Browne and giving him the information through a radio set.

About two hours later, Sears said, having returned to Reliance, he took patrol ranks and Police photographer Glensford Burnett, who made photographic exposures at the location.

The witness said, shortly after, Browne arrived with the accused, Michel Skeete and Detective Constable Bastiani.

Sears said he took possession of the mattress and carried it to Reliance Station.

He said, on May 24, 2006, he witnessed the post mortem examination on the body of Gilead, preformed by Dr. Singh and, the following day, the remains were buried at Stanleytown Cemetery, in New Amsterdam.

Sears said, on June 4, he uplifted the autopsy report from the pathologist’s office and, subsequently, tendered it at the preliminary in
quiry (PI) into the murder charge.

Under cross-examination, the witness said he travelled to the scene with civilian transport but, subsequent to his report to Browne, a Police squad vehicle conveyed four other ranks, including policemen Jonas and Newland to the scene.

Sears said he did not speak to the accused as he was a junior and the senior ranks did the talking.

According to him, he did not take the mattress to Court for it to be tendered as the Prosecutor did not request it.

Usual

He agreed, however, that it is usual for a suspect to be taken to the scene of an alleged crime.

In answer to the jury, Sears said the cause of the victim’s death was multiple burn injuries.

He said, on leaving the scene the first time, he secured the area and left Constable Jones and Rural Constabulary Corporal Merai behind.

The other Thursday witness, Royden Gilead, also a sibling of the dead man, told the Court he identified his brother’s corpse for the pathologist who handed it back to him and it was sent to the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour, in the city, as well, before being transported to Berbice for burial.

Cross-examined by Persaud, Gilead said the accused used to live with his brother and their children.

Questioned by the jury, the schoolteacher said he never visited the home of the victim while he lived with the accused but knew of the relationship through another brother and niece Latoya.

Asked by the judge, Gilead said he did not know how many years the couple lived together.

The witness said he resided at Rotterdam, on East Bank Berbice and the couple had four children, whose names he cannot now remember.

“I did not have any reason for not visiting my brother’s home,” the witness said.

The case for the Prosecution, being presented by Mc Cammon against Skeete, is that on May 14, 2006, the victim awakened Edith Clarke, told her something and was taken to New Amsterdam Hospital, suffering burns about his body.

Lincoln Gilead was transferred to Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where he died from septic burns and was buried on May 25, 2006, at Stanleytown Cemetery in New Amsterdam.