BOTH Jerome and Timmy Franklin were remanded to prison until March 11, 2015 when they appeared yesterday before Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate, Rochelle Liverpool to answer to the capital offence of murder.

The charges state that together they hacked Bibi Zalima Khan, Floyd Drakes and nine-year-old Ashley Boodhoo to death on December 18, 2014 at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo. That attack also left Geeta Boodhoo, reputed wife of Jerome Franklin, minus her left hand and sustaining several other chop wounds about the body after the senior Franklin, Jerome, forced his way into the home that he once shared with the injured woman even though he had been restrained by the court from visiting the home after he had appeared in court with Geeta Boodhoo on a prior occasion.

The Franklins were not required to plead to the indictable charges of murder.

Last week, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution had advised that both the father and the son be charged with the capital offence, even as the father reported to a newspaper that his son was not involved in the crime.

The DPP did not grant any ruling or advice on the way forward in regard to what charges are to be laid against either of the men for the serious injuries Geeta Boodhoo had sustained during the attack. The Guyana Chronicle was informed that the police are now seeking to return the file to the DPP for further advice pertaining to charges to be laid in that regard.

The DPP had not issued any advice in relation to charges to be laid in respect to the injuries sustained by Geeta Boodhoo because she was still in hospital and there was no assurance on her present chances of surviving the injuries she had received. Now that she is supposedly discharged, the DPP will advise on whether the men are to be charged with attempting to murder Geeta Boodhoo.

Jerome Franklin has denied that he killed the nine-year-old girl. He is saying that the child’s grandmother caused her death after she fired a chop at him which connected to the child’s head. Franklin said that when he saw what the grandmother had done, he became enraged because he had cared for the child from small, and the chop her grandmother had dealt her enraged him.

Geeta Boodhoo had been sharing an abusive relationship with Jerome Franklin, according to persons in the area, but Franklin has said that the woman had been squandering his money, he was not entirely pleased about it, and when he moved to confront her about it, she moved to the court to have a restraining order placed on him.

The woman reportedly began seeing Drakes who, according to persons, began visiting the home which is located in front of the home of the younger Franklin, Timmy. On the night that Drakes had visited the home, it is alleged that the junior Franklin alerted his father, who showed up later that night and created mayhem.

Jerome has, however, said it was not his son who had informed him of the presence of Drakes in the home, but a taxi driver who had dropped Drakes at the location. A section of the media has also reported Franklin as saying that he would not cease going after his badly injured wife and her sister until he had finished them off.

He claimed that his reputed wife’s sister is the root cause of all the problems he began encountering with the woman. The police last week intensified their search for Jerome Franklin after he had allegedly issued threats, and he was found hiding in the backland right in the Tuschen area.

He was arrested and, along with his son whom the police had taken into custody, charged with the offences of murder.

(Leroy Smith)