AN18-year-old lad on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to the gruesome murder of Mahaicony businesswoman Bibi Nesha Shairoon, called ‘Shakeela’, who was bludgeoned to death during a robbery at her home in 2016.

His trial is expected to commence today, following his appearance on Tuesday before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court where a 12-member jury was empanelled.
According to the murder indictment, the teen, on October 17, 2016, at Lot 4, Novar, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara (ECD), allegedly killed Shairoon. He is being tried as a juvenile, since he was 16 when he was charged for the capital offence.

Attorney-at-law Bernard DaSilva is representing the accused, while Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy is on record for the State.
Last year, Devanand Rampersaud, called ‘Juju’, a 27-year-old former fisherman of Berbice, was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 25 years. He has opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

Shairoon’s bound body was discovered in her home on October 17, 2016, by a worried relative who had not seen her in two days.
The woman, who lived alone, had operated a grocery store that also sold garden chemicals, cell-phone cards and cell-phones in the lower flat of her home.
She was found with her feet and hands tied, and with what appeared to be marks of violence about her body, primarily her head.

The intruders had gained access to the house by ripping out a few boards of the wall on the lower flat, and after ransacking the place, carted off a number of valuables, including money and phone cards.

The teenager became a suspect after residents revealed that he used to help the woman in the shop, and had had an argument with her.
Rampersaud had confessed to beating the woman in the head with a frying pan, but accused the teen of being the mastermind of the murder and robbery.