– for security guard’s murder

TWO teenagers were yesterday remanded to prison for the murder of Munisperen Monien, the security guard at Sukhram’s General Store, popularly known as “Fat Lady Store”, in Rose Hall Town, Corentyne,Berbice.

The lads, Yuvraj Singh, 17, of Guava Bush, Albion Front, East Berbice, and Carlos Ballers, 19, of Williamsburg, Corentyne,
were not required to plead to the indictable charge when they appeared at the Albion Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Renita Singh.

The pair was unrepresented and remanded until April 23.

Also appearing before Magistrate Singh was Ballers’ mother, Lalita Ballers, and she, too, was remanded after it was found that she
was an accessory to the crime.

Word is that Lalita had knowledge of the crime, and allegedly helped her son to cover it up. She was also found to have been in receipt of some of the missing money.

The lads, who were both employed at Sukhram’s, were charged after detectives were able to get a confession from them on Wednesday evening.

Reports are that they had initially confessed to planning the robbery, but not committing the murder. However, after being taken back to the crime scene on Thursday, and subjected to intense grilling, they broke down and reportedly gave detectives a detailed account of how they carried out the robbery and murder.

Last Saturday, Monien’s lifeless body was found in a pool of blood and with his throat slit at a back entrance to the store after calls to him went unanswered.

The man is believed to have put up quite a struggle with his assailants, since blood was splattered all around, his limbs were broken, and he had a severe cut on the head.

Further checks revealed that the assailants gained entry to the heavily secured premises by way of a hole in the back fence, and made their way into the store.
There were no signs of forced entry, and padlocks which were supposed to have secured the doors were allegedly left
unlocked, pointing to an inside job.

The manager reportedly informed the police that some $1.5M in cash that was hidden in
the store was missing.

As a result, the police initially detained seven persons, including the teens,
the manager and other members of staff. Two other persons were detained on Monday.

The police have come in for high praise for being able to quickly solve yet another high-profile case within a short period of time.