A 12-member jury on Monday found Phillip Jhagroo called ‘Tanky,’ guilty of murdering his drinking buddy Mark Narine called ‘Marco,’ in 2019.

Jhagroo of Richmond Hill, Leguan island, was on trial before Justice Brassington Reynolds at the Essequibo High Court for the capital offence of murder.

He had denied killing Narine between March 30-31, 2019, at School Dam, Richmond Hill, Leguan.

After deliberating for two hours, the jury returned with a guilty verdict against Jhagroo for murder.

Justice Reynolds ordered that a psychiatric evaluation be done on Jhagroo and a probation report be prepared and presented to the court. Sentencing was deferred until June 27, 2022.

The state was represented by prosecutor Tiffini Lyken, while Jhagroo was represented by attorney-at-law, Latchmie Rahamat.

According to the facts of the case, the two friends went out to consume alcohol and had a heated argument following a misunderstanding.

On the day in question, Narine was riding his motorbike when he was subsequently lashed off by Jhagroo, who was armed with an object.

Narine was thrown into a trench and his body was discovered days later. A post-mortem revealed that even though he died from drowning, he had received wounds to the head.

Jhagroo was later charged and remanded to prison. While on remand at the Lusignan Prison, he and two other inmates escaped from the facility on November 21, 2020.

In March 2021, he was nabbed by residents of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo, while stealing from a chicken farm in the area.