THE mixed jury trying Cyon Collier, aka ‘Picture Boy’, for double-murder committed on brothers Ray Walcott, aka ‘Sugar’, and Carl Andrews, aka ‘Alo’, at Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara on September 23, 2006, disagreed on a verdict yesterday at the Demerara Assizes, and remained ‘hung’ in the proportion of eight to four.

When the foreman was summoned to declare the verdict that was arrived at, he stressed to the Registrar: “In each case, eight (8) of us were saying guilty and four (4) (were saying) not guilty.”
The offence of murder requiring a unanimous verdict, the resulting effect was conceded a disagreement.
Consequently, Madam Justice Diana Insanally remanded Cyon Collier, aka ‘Picture Boy’, to prison, and ordered him to face a new trial for the same offence at the next session.
The jury was discharged and told to return to court to continue the session.
On resumption yesterday, Madam Justice Insanally had taken 2 ½ hours to sum up the evidence to the jury.
After retiring at noon for deliberations, the jury spent two hours in the jury room before returning to the judge for further directions, but the written request for information was tantamount to conclusions they had arrived at. The judge therefore sent them back to the jury room with instructions to consider their conclusions and to return with a verdict.
After deliberating for six hours, the jury returned with the disclosure that 8 of them were saying the accused was guilty as charged, whilst 4 were saying the accused was not guilty.
Defence Counsel Lyndon Amsterdam had, in his one-day address to the jury, alluded to the prosecution’s evidence as weak, and had urged the mixed jury to return a verdict of not guilty. He said the prosecution’s case was built on inconsistencies, as shown by discrepancies in the evidence given at the preliminary inquiry at the Magistrate’s Court and that given at the High Court before judge and jury. He said that the evidence should be rejected.
On the other hand, leading Prosecutor Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin told the jury, “This is a very simple and straightforward case that calls out for justice.”
Quoting from the Bible at Exodus Chapter 20 verse 13, which admonishes ‘Thou shall not kill’, she said the accused had shot two of his best friends in cold blood, and she described the act as a senseless one that left each of nine children from the two fallen brothers to grow up without a father.
From the outset, Mrs Gildharie-Mursalin had been contending that the ‘Picture Boy’ case was one for the jury to decide.
When the case began some days ago, the prosecutor delivered an opening address to the jury in which she told them what evidence to expect from the witnesses.
She told the jury that, in the early morning of September 23, 2006, a group of young men was playing dominoes at the Victoria ‘Four Corner’, East Coast Demerara, and two brothers — Ray Walcott called ‘Sugar’ and Carl Andrews called ‘Alo’– were among those watching on when the accused, Cyon Collier, called ‘Picture Boy’, rode up on a motorcycle dressed in black clothing with a gun slung across his back, and began to gaff with the crowd. He later cranked his gun and started shooting.
Everyone scattered, running off in different directions.
When the shooting stopped, the two brothers were found with what appeared to be bullet holes in their bodies. Sugar was lying on the road, and Alo was found in a nearby yard.
They were taken to hospital, where they were both pronounced dead.
Police officers recovered spent shells from the scene of the shooting, and those were submitted to the ballistics expert for analysis.
Dr. Nehaul Singh, the Government Forensic Pathologist who performed the post-mortem on the bodies of Sugar and Alo, testified he found that Sugar had sustained seven gunshot injuries, and that Alo had three bullet wounds and had died as a result of perforation of the lung due to gunshot injuries.
Defence counsel had suggested to the doctor that his examination had not been thorough, and that he had not consulted the ballistics expert in relation to his findings. The doctor did not agree with that suggestion.
Witnesses had pointed out that on October 5, 2006, based on information received, police and army ranks had visited a house at Bachelor’s Adventure at 05:00 hrs in the morning, and had found the accused, Cyon ‘Picture Boy’ Collier, with three weapons, which were recovered, including an AK-47 assault rifle with 13 matching rounds. That weapon was handed to the ballistics expert, who examined same and carried out tests, after which he concluded that the spent shells found at the scene were fired from the said AK-47 rifle which had been found with Cyon Collier.