JUSTICE Dawn Gregory, the presiding judge in the father-in-law murder trial, will sum up to the jury on Monday and then hand over the case to them for their deliberation and verdict.

The accused, Marlon Ganesh, is on trial for the alleged murder of his father-in-law, Roopnarine Singh, who was stabbed to death on Christmas Day, 2008.
On that day, they were merrymaking and imbibing alcohol when the accused Ganesh had a misunderstanding with his wife (the deceased’s daughter) and cussed her and her mother.
The trouble escalated after Roopnarine called upon his son-in-law to refrain from cussing, and told him that if he continued with his bad behaviour he (the accused) would have to leave the house.

According to the eyewitness, the accused not only said “no problem” but began to pack up his belongings. When told by the deceased that he was packing too slowly, the accused pushed his father-in- law and then stabbed him with a knife, and he subsequently died in hospital.

Defence counsel, Mr. Huckumchand, had asked the jury to find that the father-in-law was the aggressor and that the son-in-law, had acted in self-defence.
But in her final address to the jury yesterday, prosecutrix, Miss Renita Singh urged the jury to reject the story about self-defense, and posed the question, “what could he be defending himself against? Roopnarine was not armed, he was defenceless.”
The judge will sum up the evidence on Monday.

*** PHOTO saved in folder in Graphics as: High Court 11-7-13 (DSC0208)
Caption: Murder accused Marlon Ganesh being escorted to court yesterday

South Ruimveldt murder trial continues as previously ill juror returns

THE sick juror at the Demerara Assizes who was hospitalised, causing Mr. Justice Bovell-Drakes to adjourn the trial, has returned to court, fully recovered.
The case continued yesterday with police witness Lakeram Dath giving evidence about a number of fingerprints he had uplifted from the scene.
The accused Shawn Smith is indicted with the unlawful killing of Hector Fitzroy Marshall between January 18th and 19th, 2009.

State prosecutors, Natasha Backer and Dhanika Singh are presenting their case through direct and circumstantial evidence.

Earlier in the trial, Julian Curt Edmonds had told the jury that he went home and found the motionless body of his father tied up and gagged at the South Ruimveldt, Georgetown home.
Other witnesses had told the court how the house was ransacked and louvres were removed from the window of the room where the body was found.
Attorney-at-law Peter Hugh is defence counsel. The trial is continuing.