CLEBERT Reece, called “Chi-Chi”, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter for the 2008 Bartica Massacre before Justice Roxane George.In her opening address, State Prosecutor Diana Kaulesar told the court that on the day of the massacre, Reece, who faces 12 counts of murder, was forcefully recruited by one “Sad Man”.
She said that it was because “Sad Man” phoned Reece and threatened to kill his family that he went into a car at East La Penitence with four men. The driver of the vehicle, she said, had a hand-gun, while the other men had AK-47 weapons.
Kaulesar further told the court that the car took Reece to the Parika Bus Park, just off the Stabroek Market, where he met two men, with whom he travelled to Parika by bus.
She related that when the accused got to Parika, he got a boat and the two men put two drums of gasoline on it; that done, he drove the boat from Parika to an old wharf at Tiger Bay, where he left it in the care of a woman and returned to his family.
Kaulesar stated that after “Sad Man” called the accused again, he went with co-accused Dennis Williams to Tiger Bay, where he boarded the boat and drove it to East Coast Demerara. Upon mooring the boat there, he was joined by seven men, and together they set off for Georgetown. That was on February 16, 2008.

ENGINE TROUBLE
But when the boat was in the vicinity of Eve Leary, the prosecutor told the court, the engine went dead, and “Sad Man”, probably thinking it was Reece’s fault, put an AK-47 to his back and began swearing at him.
At that point, she said, another man, called “Magic”, told “Sad Man” to go easy on the accused, since they needed him to repair the engine.
Kaulesar said that having repaired the boat’s engine, the accused took it to an island just before Bartica, where the seven men he’d picked up on the East Coast disembarked, while he went back to Tiger Bay.
On arrival at Tiger Bay, she said, Reece met a man and a woman, and together they went and purchased food, after which they emptied the drums and bought more fuel.
The State Prosecutor said that the man at reference, who was subsequently identified as “White Boy”, placed a big black bag in the boat, and when the tide rose, they set off for the island where the accused had dropped off the seven.
She said that on the way there, “White Boy” took out an AK-47, two soldier’s bullet proof vests, a .45 handgun and a soldier’s uniform.
On arrival at the island, where “White Boy” was joined by his seven confederates, Kaulesar said, the boat again developed engine trouble, so they decided to rest there for the night.

READY TO ROLL
She told the court that at around 18:30hrs the next day (February 17, 2008), the group, armed to the teeth and dressed in army camouflage suits and uniforms, departed for Bartica.
On arrival there, she said, the accused would remain on the boat with three other accomplices while the others disembarked. Soon after, he heard gunshots; and sometime thereafter, the men who’d gotten off the boat returned, carrying a pump-action gun, handguns and two safes.
Kaulesar had told the court on Monday that in the presence of the accused, “Sad Man”, also known as “Fine Man”, had shot five men behind their heads on the Bartica Stelling.
She’d said, too, that the accused had also heard that they had killed seven other persons. She said that after the incident, the accused drove the boat to Sherima, and after crossing, he moored the boat, and the men placed the articles in a four-runner jeep while he poured gas into the boat and set it adrift.
Kaulesar said they then travelled by land to a campsite, where the safes were opened and found to have contained money and several ounces of gold.
She related that the accused and the other men were each given six ounces of gold; three months after, he made a run for it.

CAUGHT!
Kaulesar told the court that the day after he made his escape, he saw Dennis Williams and two friends, and together they went to buy food. The next day he was arrested in a car with a friend called “Randy”. He was picked out during an identification parade on May 27, 2008.
He will return to the High Court before Justice Roxane George on December 16, 2016 for a probation report, followed by sentencing.
The accused is being represented by defence attorney Madan Kissoon.

Meanwhile, a 12-member jury was on Tuesday empanelled for the trial of three of the accused: Mark Royden, called ‘Durant Williams’; Dennis Williams, aka “Anaconda”; and Roger Simon, before Justice Roxane George.
That trial starts today at 09:00hrs.