Co-accused changes plea; sentencing set for March 25

AFTER spending the last seven years on remand, Melroy Doris, on Thursday, threw himself at the mercy of the court and confessed to the execution-style killing of 19-year-old cosmetologist, Ashmini Harriram in 2014. Doris was initially charged with the capital offence of murder, but when the case was called before Justice Brassington Reynolds on Thursday, he opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter, which alleged that, on July 10, 2014, at Lusignan on the Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara, he unlawfully killed Harriram.
Justice Reynolds has deferred sentencing until March 25, so as to allow for a probation report to be prepared for Doris. The State is represented by Prosecutor Seeta Bishundial, while Doris is represented by attorney-at-law Stanley Moore.

Doris was jointly charged with Lennox Wayne, called “Two Colours”, for the capital offence, but the latter has since filed a constitutional motion in the Demerara High Court seeking a permanent stay of the case against him, and has also asked to be granted bail pending the hearing of his application.
The Guyana Chronicle had initially reported that Wayne was allegedly the “triggerman”, while Doris was the taxi driver who facilitated the execution.
It is also alleged that following the commission of the crime, Doris took Wayne back to the city, where the victim’s cell-phone was handed over to one of the two persons who’d contracted the duo to carry out the ‘hit’ for $2.5 million.
The two men were reportedly contracted by the hairdresser’s brother-in-law and an accomplice who wanted her dead after they suspected that she had snitched on them. They reportedly believed that it was she who’d informed the police of a drug operation they were engaged in, resulting in the narcotics being seized.