IN DELIVERING her opening address in the Seelall Pharbu manslaughter case on Tuesday, Prosecutrix Tamieka Clarke told the jury that witnesses heard two bangs that left Rampersaud a dead man and the accused armed with a gun.

She said Pharbu had been indicted by the State for manslaughter — the unlawful killing of a human being by another without malice aforethought.

She said it was the prosecution’s burden to prove that the accused is guilty as he sat in the prisoner’s dock; he has nothing to prove.

She reiterated: “So, as you listen to the evidence, you are to bear in mind that the prosecution has to prove the following elements or ingredients of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt:-
i. The accused inflicted the injuries on the deceased, Premaul Rampersaud.

ii. The deceased died as a result of those injuries.

iii. The deceased died within a year and a day of receiving the injuries.

iv. The incident was not an accident, it was not done in self-defence, nor was there any provocation.

“These ingredients will be proven by the evidence of the witnesses the State intends to call,” she declared. “Because you have to decide what you believe happened, you are entitled to ask every witness questions — perhaps about things you are unclear about or things you want additional details on, which you think might assist you when the time comes for you to decide whether or not to find the accused guilty.

“They will tell you a story that the deceased, Premaul Rampersaud, was in the front passenger seat, along with three other persons. Earlier, they were at a shop, where they had something to drink; then they were at a wedding house. On the way from the wedding house, they heard a loud bang and then another.

“After that, two witnesses observed the accused with a gun in his hand and the deceased was not moving. They got out of the car to see what was wrong with Premaul. The accused got into the driver’s seat and drove away. They followed in another car, [and] they met Premaul and the accused at the GPHC, where Premaul was pronounced dead on arrival.”

The hearing into this case is continuing.