SEVEN years after the brutal murder of an elderly rice-farming couple, Mohamed Munir and his wife, Bibi Jamila, who were burnt to death in their Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo home, three men were, on Monday, freed, due to insufficient evidence.

Jason Howard called ‘Smelly;’ Shamadeen Mohammed called ‘Milo’ and Joel Blair were on trial before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow at the Demerara High Court.
The men had denied killing the elderly couple on April 17, 2016, at Good Hope, East Bank Essequibo in the course or furtherance of arson.
During the trial, a voir dire was called to determine the admissibility of evidence of the trio’s caution statement. However, on Monday, Justice Barlow ruled that the statement was inadmissible.

After the prosecutors closed their case, the Judge directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty against the men since there was insufficient evidence to prove the charge.
Munir, 75, and his Bibi, 69, perished shortly after 23:00 hrs on April 17, 2016, after they were trapped in the raging fire which destroyed their heavily grilled, two-storey house.
Their badly burnt bodies were retrieved from the debris after the fire was finally extinguished. Eyewitnesses had claimed that the blaze started in the upper flat and spread throughout the house within minutes.

Reports indicated that one of the suspects, who lives at the back of the Munirs, revealed to a friend that the couple had $20M cash in their house. A deportee was then contacted and a gang of six, which included a driver and a lookout, was formed and the plan was hatched to rob the couple.
Police investigators learnt that the men, upon breaking into the couple’s house, hunted for valuables and, in the process, the couple woke.
This newspaper had reported the perpetrators then attempted to gain access to the couple’s bedroom at the rear of the building, but because of the security feature, they were unable to do so.

The angry bandits then decided to light a sofa afire and threw a gas bottle into the fire, resulting in a loud explosion minutes after they fled the scene. They then fled through a track that led to a church and a cemetery in a street behind the couple’s house. From their hiding place, they heard Mohamed and Bibi Munir screaming for help.
Police have received reports from a neighbour, who said that she saw two persons in the couple’s veranda before the fire broke out.

The neighbour also claimed to have heard Mrs. Munir screaming that ‘bandits’ were in the house.
Jason Howard, one of the accused, has had previous encounters with the law. In February 2023, he and another individual were acquitted of an attempted murder charge due to insufficient evidence.

In 2019, Howard received a 12-month prison sentence after being found guilty of robbing a fruit vendor in 2016. He also faced several other robbery charges.