THE re-trial of Tyrone Rowe called “Cobra” started in the Demerara High Court before Justice Sandil Kissoon and a 12-member jury, where the State is expected to call about nine witnesses to take the stand.

The State is being represented by Lisa Cave and Orinthia Schmidt, while the defence attorney is George Thomas.
Rowe, who was sentenced to 78 years in jail for the 2010 murder of Troy Collymore, is being re-tried after the Appeal Court on July 20, 2018 upheld a challenge to his conviction.

In 2013, a unanimous verdict of guilty was returned by a 12-member jury and Justice Navindra Singh had imposed the sentence on Rowe at the Demerara Criminal Assizes.
Rowe was tried for murdering Collymore, who was shot in August, 2010 after a robbery at a pharmacy in Plaisance, on the East Coast of Demerara. He was declared clinically dead two days after, at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

During the first trial, 13 witnesses were called by the State, including two eyewitnesses, one of whom had testified that Rowe was one of three men who had robbed him and others.

During the conclusion of the appeal hearing, which was presided over by acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices Rishi Persaud and Arif Bulkan, it was announced that the sentence that was handed down to Rowe would be set aside.

In his appeal on behalf of Rowe, attorney Thomas noted the various ways the trial judge had erred or misdirected the jury towards the end of the trial in the High Court. The defence attorney had also highlighted the conflicting evidence of the eyewitnesses, and taken issue too, with the lengthy sentence imposed by the trial judge.

In presenting the court’s decision, Justice Bulkan noted that there was material misdirection by the trial judge in relation to the identification parade. It was also noted that the trial judge ought to have highlighted the various discrepancies, as it related to how one of the witnesses was able to see the accused during the crime.

The judges surmised that some of the inadequacies noted by Thomas could be addressed by proper directions from the trial judge. They ultimately concluded that the interest of justice demanded that Rowe be retried at the next sitting of the Demerara Criminal Assizes, which started in October.