–pending evaluation of accused’s sanity

JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes on Monday deferred sentencing of prisoner Adrian McKenzie so as to allow government psychiatrist Dr. Bhiro Harry to pronounce on his sanity. As such, the trial will resume next Tuesday.

McKenzie had, through his attorney Maxwell McKay, previously pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter in the Georgetown High Court for the 2010 alleged murder of his 62-year-old mother, Ethel Andries.

According to reports, McKenzie was arrested by a posse of men from his village, located about 65 miles south of Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Essequibo-Upper Takutu), less than 24 hours after he had allegedly beaten his mother to death with a hammer. The bloodied hammer was recovered by the police at the crime scene.

The savage attack on his mother was reportedly triggered by her reprimanding him for assaulting his father. It is alleged that he also attempted to kill a teen female relative by cutting her throat with a knife.

Fortunately for her, the wound was superficial, so she was able to raise an alarm, at which point McKenzie made a run for it into the surrounding bushes.

He was, however, cornered and handed over to the police by a group of village men who had mobilised horses and gone in search of him.