–in ‘Mango Man’ murder trial

ANGRY murder accused, Mark Williams, who had been on trial in the high profile Lusignan Massacre case and was freed, caused an uproar on Thursday in another murder case.
Williams, known as Roydon Durant, and also called ‘Smallie’ is charged jointly with two others with having on August 30, 2007, in the county of Demerara, murdered Kumar Singh, called ‘Mango Man.’
Williams on Thursday sacked his State-assigned defence counsel, Raymond Ali and declared that he wanted a fair trial but doubted that this was possible with the present judge and prosecutor in his current trial. He then applied for an adjournment to enable his family to retain Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Roger Yearwood, as his defence counsel.
But before all this had occurred, Williams had refused to attend court and his co-defendants Sherwin Nero, called ‘Cuffy’; and Andrew Philander, called ‘Junior’ and ‘Gadget’ had appeared in court escorted by heavily armed Tactical Services Unit (TSU) ranks and members of the Brickdam-based Dragon Alpha Squad.
After consultations among court officials, the police, and prisons it was determined that Williams who was absent must be brought to court.
As the party returned with him, the siren of the police escort vehicle could be heard. And then shockingly the accused appeared in a short multi-coloured pants and a white T-shirt. And he had already told his lawyer who had approached him for instructions, “Keep away from me. I don’t want to see you.”
On the first occasion last week a jury was empanelled to try this case. On the resumption yesterday the judge had received an application from Mr. Ali asking for leave to withdraw from the case since the accused was hostile and had asked him to leave when he sought his instructions for the case.
The judge then sent the jury out of sight and hearing while he communicated with the accused and Mr. Ali.
At this stage, the judge granted leave to Mr. Ali to withdraw from the matter and told the accused that since he and the other co-defendants are all charged jointly, they would have to be tried together.
The judge aborted the trial and the accused who has been in custody for a long time will be further remanded until the next session.
The jury were discharged without giving a verdict but were asked to return on Monday when it is hoped that they would be empanelled in another matter.

(By George Barclay)