Reputed wife fearful of freed murder accused
THE reputed wife of a fugitive convict has questioned why a wanted bulletin was never issued for him although he is a convicted robber. Angela Hooper said Raymond La Fleur was found guilty, by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo, at New Amsterdam Court, in Berbice, where he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Hooper, who shared a nine-year relationship with the freed murder accused, raised the issue because she is now afraid for her life after several threatening phone calls and the subsequent destruction of her clothing and household articles at their Vryheid, West Canje home, also in Berbice.
The distraught woman said, for years, she wanted to end their relations, which was tainted by constant police arrests, due to the lifestyle of her partner but was forced to remain because of threats.
But it was during his last confinement, remanded on charges of murder and robbery under arms that she decided to call it quits.
Hooper said the problems he had with the law and his always being in prison, caused her to make the decision.

Poison
She recalled that La Fleur, whilst in jail, became aware of her determination and, during a telephone conversation, threatened to send persons to poison the water in her tank and that resulted in her not using the essential liquid.
Hooper said she believed the property is the reason for the threats because, at one time, he said if she signed it over to him, he would leave her alone.
The mother of an adult son told the Guyana Chronicle that it was in mid March that she, temporarily, moved from her house, as La Fleur was released from prison on the murder charge.
She said her reason for moving was that she no longer wanted to be intimate with him, knowing he would have made such demands once they were together.
Hooper said: “Two weeks after his release, he was sentenced to five years in his absence and has been hiding since then.”
She related: “On April 13, I was at our home, at Vryheid Village, which is jointly owned and, during the evening hours, I saw a shadow downstairs. On looking through the window, I saw him and he called out to me, telling me to open the door. But I did not comply.”
Hooper said, instead, she called the police and, when they did not answer their phone, she had to call the cell number of a detective she knew.
Minutes later, three policemen arrived and, after one of them called his name, he fled.
She said, about eight minutes after, La Fleur telephoned her and they spoke for three minutes before she ventured downstairs to open the gate for the policemen.
The phone rang, again, and she told one of the ranks that it was La Fleur ringing and she was not going to answer.

Answered
Hooper said the constable answered the phone in the living room and they spoke for about fifteen minutes, during which time, she was in the bedroom. However, as she returned to the living room, she overheard the policeman saying:”I gon secure that.”
She remembered telling the plainclothes policeman that she needed to be escorted to her mother’s house and, according to her, the man responded: “Raymond wants to make up with you. He came to talk with you.”
Hooper said she was shocked to hear his response and reiterated, to him, that she wanted nothing to do with La Fleur.
They both exited her house and she locked the door. As she stood at the bottom of the stairway, she saw the detective constable venture under the building and return with two haversacks and a black plastic bag.
He said to her: “You know weed in the bag” and I asked him why he was telling me. He replied: “I just telling you, as it could implicate you.”
Hooper said he never opened the bag.
She said, shortly after 01:00 hr on April 14, she was at her mother’s home when the same detective constable contacted her, requesting that she go, alone, to the station. However, at her insistence that her mother and 18-year-old son accompany her, the detective told her: “Raymond don’t want to do your son anything, is you he want kill. Like he running mad.”
She said they arrived at Central Police Station, New Amsterdam, at 01:40 hrs and left at 05:30 hrs.

Underwear
“I went to my mother’s house in Vryman’ Erven. Afterwards, I called a taxi which took me to Vryheid. On reaching home, I first noticed that the window curtains were off and my underwear were all cut and had lined the gate. I called a taxi and proceeded to Central Police Station where I made a report.
“Minutes later, the detective constable came and I told him he was the cause of what Raymond is doing and that when he said like Raymond was running mad he knew that he was in the house damaging the things,” she narrated.
Hooper later discovered that among the things destroyed were several electrical appliances, including her blender, music set, television, gas stove, suite, clothes and household articles.
She said curtains and more things were damaged after a mixture of mustard and detergents were poured on them.
Hooper said statements have been submitted to the Acting Berbice Divisional Crime Chief, the Deputy Commander and the Police Complaints Authority but nothing has been done as La Fleur is still walking the streets.
She said he knows the law and how the system works and that is why she is afraid of him.
“He got off from a murder charge, an allegation which stemmed from the death of a prison inmate. I feel like he plans to murder me and get away with it. I am having sleepless nights because the police are not arresting him,” Hooper lamented.
She said he would call and, repeatedly, say he knows the law and that you can kill and get off.
In addition, every time she goes to the station, he knows and would call her or her mother.
“I do not know who to trust. As soon as I walk out from the station, he would call. Recently I was at the Criminal Investigations Department from 10:00 hrs to 15:00 hrs and, when I left, Raymond telephoned my mother telling her everything,” Hooper stated.