FOLLOWING the close of the prosecution’s case in the June 30, 2011 Robb Street ‘granny’ murder in the High Court yesterday, State Prosecutor Teshanna James-Lake in closing remarks addressed the court and the 12-member jury.She told the court that since the lengthy trial was coming to an end, she would be short in her presentation.
Lake said the four accused present in court and seated in the prisoner’s dock were charged for the murder of Clementine Fiedtkou-Parris.

She added that the State presented the evidence, which was heard in court where several police witnesses testified; and they had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the men were responsible for the murder of the 72-year-old woman at her home.

Lake stated that four months after the murder, the four accused were arrested by the police, and they began ‘singing’. Each man told the police the part he played in the crime through their caution statements.

She told the jury also that they were judges of the facts, and that it was up to them to come to a conclusion.
Lake explained that the four accused each narrated their stories to the police, which were brought as evidence in the case; and that two of the four men were picked out during separate identification parades by the victims’ brother, Fitzroy Fiedtkou, who is now deceased.

Lake yesterday detailed the involvement of the four men in the crime, and said that their motive in the matter was one of greed, where they did not want to work, but to get money the easy way by taking cash to kill an elderly woman.

She pointed out that the witnesses who testified on the State’s behalf had no reason to lie, and that the truth was presented in court, since justice is a two-edged sword. And from listening to the evidence, she said, it can be clearly be concluded that the four men committed the act, even though the mastermind is yet to be brought to the High Court.

Lake told the jury to take into consideration the evidence Government Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh gave in court on the post mortem he performed on the body of Fiedtkou-Parris, which said she died within minutes of receiving the fatal wound.

Lake explained that the intention of each of the four men present in court was highlighted, given the part each played in the murder of Fiedtkou-Parris.

She stated, “The evidence is overwhelming and compelling, and these are the persons who killed Fiedtkou-Parris.”

Orin Hinds, called “Redman”, of Burnham Boulevard, Mocha, East Bank Demerara; Kevin October, called, “Troy”, of Second Street, Agricola, East Bank Demerara; Cleon Hinds, and Roy Jacobs, called “Chippie” or “Black Boy”, of Evans Street, Charlestown, are currently facing Justice Navindra Singh and a mixed 12-member jury for the murder.

According to the indictment, the four men murdered Clementine Fiedtkou-Parris pursuant to an arrangement whereby money was to be passed from one person to another.
On the evening of June 30, 2011, two men went to Fiedtkou-Parris’s Robb Street home asking for ‘Auntie’, a title by which she was called. They were directed up a side step, and as Fiedtkou-Parris emerged from her bedroom, one of the men pulled out a gun and shot her several times to the upper part of her body.
The men then jumped into a waiting car, while the injured woman was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Today, the 12-member jury will deliberate and come up with a verdict in the High Court, which will bring an end to the weeks’ long murder trial.

By Michel Outridge