–for killing NA fruits vendor

JUSTICE Brassington Reynolds on Thursday afternoon sentenced to death Stafford Harry, called Belall, following the arrival of the jury at a unanimous verdict of guilty two weeks ago.

However, State assigned Defence Counsel Sasha Roberts has signalled her intention to appeal the case as Harry continues to maintain his innocence, and weeping and calling on the Lord to plead his case.
Prior to his conviction, ‘Belall’ had been on the run for five years, having fled to neighbouring Suriname following the death of New Amsterdam Market fruit vendor Hasrat Samaroo, called Watermelon, on March 28, 2010 .

But in 2015, the police instituted a joint murder charge on Troy Holligan and Ojay Gourie, both of whom were freed after the judge noted that the evidence of the main witness was “manifestly unreliable”, and upheld a no-case submission, directing the mixed jury to return a verdict of not guilty in the men’s favour.

However, like the day he was convicted, there was a deafening silence before the now death-row prisoner erupted into mournful wails, proclaiming his innocence and again blaming his poverty for such a verdict.

“Again I am saying I am innocent! I am innocent! Is because I have no money for a top lawyer the jury finds me guilty while I am innocent. The Samaroo family lie on me!” Belall wailed.

State Prosecutrix Tuanna Hardy in her opening address at the start of the trial said that it was around 19:00hrs on the evening of March 27, 2010 that Samaroo and his wife, Kumarie, were at their home at Hampshire Village, Corentyne.
Hansraj was watching television in the living room in the upper flat of the two-storey building, Hardy said, whilst his wife was cooking in the kitchen downstairs.
The lights were on in the house, and as Kumarie was cooking, she was confronted by a man with a gun.

And as Kumarie called out to her husband, the man with the gun quickly mounted the inner stairs to get to him before he could come down, and no sooner had he done that than she heard what sounded like a gunshot.
Staying with the story, Hardy said when Kumarie went upstairs to see what was going on, she saw the said man with the gun and her husband standing there bleeding from his groin.

Kumarie also saw two other men, Hardy and they, too, were armed with what appeared to be guns. She was relieved of a total of G$600,000 and US$1500 which she had in her wardrobe, and the five gold bangles and five gold finger rings valued $400,000 which she had on her person.

According to the State Prosecutrix, the post mortem report revealed that Samaroo’s death was consistent with his injury, as among other things, he died of a laceration of the femoral artery. What was interesting however, was that no mention was made of a gunshot injury.

Another witness, one Detective Sergeant Lawrence Thomas, in his evidence in chief, recalled that whilst being stationed at the Whim Police Station on September 2, 2015, he contacted the accused who was in custody, having been earlier deported from Suriname.
And he said that when the allegation of murder was put to Harry under caution, he denied killing Samaroo. Thomas recalled, too, that after Samaroo was killed, checks were made for Harry but reports had revealed that he had vacated the area.

Responding to a certain line of questioning by Legal Aid Defence Counsel Sasha Roberts, the detective said the accused did not tell him that he was working with his brothers, Dwayne Ridley and Sherwin Terrence, in neighbouring Suriname.

Further, Thomas said he did not cause a confrontation between the accused and the Samaroos, and that neither was an identification parade held, nor did anyone point out the accused as the person who committed the crime.