IT was sheer confusion and “bacchanal” when the trial against five teens for the murder of 75-year-old retired professor, Pairadeau Mars ended on Monday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.City Magistrate Leron Daly, committed Paul Chance, 18, Orin Anthony McRae and Andre Benjamin (both 17-years old), Nikita Dover and a 15-year old to stand trial at the High Court for Mars’ murder.

Additionally, Magistrate Daly admitted the five teens’ caution statements into evidence after she ruled on a voir dire (a trial within a trial) that the teens had given them to the police freely.

The preliminary inquiry was done by paper committal which was held in-camera. After Magistrate Daly made her ruling then the teens’ parents and relatives burst out of the courtroom in tears.

However about 12:30 p.m. two of the accused, while being escorted to the court lock-ups rushed Chance as he was coming from the courtroom chute and stabbed him to his abdomen with an improvised icepick. The two attackers were not handcuffed at the time.

Chance dropped to his knees in pain while police held on to the two perpetrators. It is reported that the two teens had planned to harm Chance if they were not freed since it’s believed that Chance had “ratted” them out to the police, leading to all of them being arrested.

The mother of the injured teen became hysterical and had to be restrained by three female police officers.
“ Yall leh meh see my son…. Owww yall leh me see he and I guh gone my way” the mother wailed as the police blocked the woman from seeing her son.

The courtyard quickly became flooded with police officers as they tried to control the large crowd that had gathered.

Quick response led to the Guyana Fire Service Ambulance coming to take the injured teen (under police guard), along with his mother to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he is being treated for internal bleeding.

The teenagers are charged jointly for the murder of the former University of Guyana Professor on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at his Lot 395, Bissessar Avenue, Prashad Nagar home, during the course of a robbery.

Mars was killed by a gang of teens, who beat and bound him in his home. The teens are between the ages of 15 and 18 and reportedly confessed to the murder/robbery, while in police custody. On the day in question, at about 18:30hrs, the professor was found in his home by his wife with his hands and feet duct-taped and with injuries to his head. The house was ransacked, and a number of articles and cash were missing. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a private hospital.

According to reports, the teens were known to Professor Mars. They were arrested after neighbours observed the group leaving the retired professor’s residence with suitcases and entering a car. Subsequently, his wife returned home and found his bloodied and lifeless body in the house.

Less than 24 hours later, the police arrested the suspects and recovered a sum of cash,a laptop computer, iPod and PlayStation that were taken from Mars’ home.

Mars specialised in African Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA, having studied history at the University of Guyana and Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He was also credited with developing an international academic exchange project between Africana Studies, the College of Urban Labor and Metropolitan Affairs (CULMA), and the University of Guyana.

A post-mortem performed on Mars had revealed that death was due to manual strangulation, compounded by multiple fractures to the head and face.