A Demerara Assize jury in the Coverden murder trial on Friday freed Jennifer Young, called Jennifer Loncke, who was accused of brutally chopping her lover Edward Williams to death in 2007. The mixed jury returned unanimous verdicts of not guilty to both murder and manslaughter.
Justice Winston Patterson who in his summing up of the evidence told the jury that there was no “eye-see” evidence and pointed out to them that there was compelling circumstantial evidence which the jury could use to convict if they believed the evidence.
The case for the prosecution was that the accused, a middle-aged woman, was seen washing away from her yard on the day in question what appeared to be blood stains and broken glass.
Sharon Williams, a witness for the prosecution, said that she heard the accused and the deceased arguing on August 31, 2007. She also saw the accused standing in her yard with a cutlass in her hand.
Another witness, Mark Spencer had asked the accused what happened? She replied – ‘Self defence.’
Three cutlasses were found in the  yard of the accused with what appeared to be blood. When the blood on the cutlasses were tested it was found to be human blood, witnesses told the court.
Defence counsel, Mr. Nigel Hughes, in referring to the several chops about the body and the manner in which the corpse was found beneath a heap of tyres, said that that destroys any suggestion that the woman could have single- handedly committed such a crime by herself.
But leading prosecutor, Mrs. Teshana James-Lake, who prosecuted in association with Miss Diana Kaulesar, urged the jury in her final address to find that the woman had been caught red handed washing away from her yard what appeared to be blood stains and broken glass.
Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh, who performed the post-mortem and had recounted the several chops on the body that left some fingers missing and parts of the body partly severed, had also concluded that death was due to shock and haemorrhage caused by multiple injuries inflicted with a heavy, sharp instrument, such as a cutlass or a chopper.
And in answer to a question by the jury, the doctor said that the accused could have inflicted the injuries herself or with the aid of others.
The accused, who pleaded not guilty, told the judge and jury, in an unsworn statement from the dock, that she was at her home on the day in question when someone scaled her fence and proceeded to break up glasses. She said that she was innocent of the crime, and did not know how Williams met his death.
The defence is alleging that the witness was told that a man had scaled her fence, which the witness might have mistaken for the words “It is self-defence.”
The judge had summed up the evidence in three hours and the jury took just over two hours to reach their unanimous verdicts of not guilty to murder and manslaughter.
After Justice Winston Patterson told the accused that  the jury had found her not guilty of both murder and manslaughter and that she was free to leave, the accused shouted ‘Jesus’. She then leaned over the dock and kissed her lawyer Mr. Nigel Hughes, said thanks to the jury and kept shouting the word ‘Jesus’ as she  ran out of the court room.