POLICE Corporal Sherwin Smith was yesterday remanded to prison on the capital offence of murder, allegedly committed on Ralph Turpin, a drug rehabilitation counsellor.
Smith, of 434 South Sophia, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry and was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that on September 15, he murdered Ralph Turpin.
Attorney-at-law Mr. George Thomas represented the accused and raised objections about the identification of his client in the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News newspapers.
Thomas made an application for his client to be kept elsewhere and not at the Camp Street Prison, since his personal security would be at risk because he had investigated several high-profile cases.
The magistrate noted that the custody of persons was the responsibility of the Guyana Prison Service.
The accused was remanded and the matter was transferred to Magistrate Sueanna Lovell for report and fixture.
When the case was called in Lovell’s court, the matter was further adjourned to October 10, for the commencement of the Preliminary Inquiry. 
Initial report stated that Ralph Turpin, 49, a former Drug Rehabilitation Counsellor, was shot and killed early Thursday morning, as he attempted to make peace between warring factions at a food stall on Cornhill Street, outside Stabroek Market, in the city.
Turpin, of Agriculture Road, Triumph, East Coast Demerara, was rushed to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
According to reports, the deceased, an experienced counsellor, who formerly worked with the Salvation Army’s Drug Rehabilitation Programme in Kingston, about three years ago took up an appointment with the Ministry of Health’s Phoenix Recovery Programme and was known to have made a significant contribution to reforming the lives of many a substance abuser over the years.
The man, who was in the business of changing lives for the better, following his involvement with the Salvation Army, dedicated the rest of his life towards helping substance abusers overcome the habit and live meaningful lives as citizens of worth. As a well-known counsellor, he was a stickler for discipline and would never stand idly by and see advantage taken of anyone. He lived by this virtue until  the time of his death, since the police report confirmed that he died ‘going to make peace’.