–over conviction for ‘Blue Martini’ murder

SHAWN Harris, called ‘Shawny’, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a man in 2017, is now moving to the Court of Appeal to challenge his conviction and sentence.

In January 2020, Harris was sentenced by High Court Judge, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow after a 12-member jury found him guilty of murder. It was alleged that on February 5, 2017, he killed Sunil Singh, called ‘Grey’, at the Blue Martini nightclub on Owen Street, Kitty.

Harris was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 20 years.
According to reports, patrol ranks swooped down on the Blue Martini nightclub and ordered it closed at around 02:45hrs on February 5, 2017.

According to Charles Valenzuela, an employee of the nightspot, shortly after the police left, three men arrived and demanded to be allowed to enter the club.

At that point, Valenzuela said, he told them that they couldn’t, as the Club was closed. This led to an argument, during the course of which one of the men stabbed Valenzuela in the left arm.
Singh, who perhaps thought that Valenzuela was being taken advantage of, intervened and was trying to make peace when one of the suspects dealt him a blow in the head.
Not satisfied with what he’d done, the assailant reportedly pursued Singh, who’d gone running north into Railway Street, Kitty, and when he caught up with him, stabbed him several times.
Both Singh and Valenzuela were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where the former was pronounced dead on arrival, and the latter was treated and sent away.
In 2016, Harris was released from prison after serving a sentence for drug trafficking.
He had also served time for the Bank of Baroda robbery committed at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara on January 22, 2016.