Judge to rule on defence no-case submission today
JUSTICE Franklyn Holder will this morning decide whether or not the prosecution has made out a case for murder accused Rayburn Harvey to answer in relation to the alleged shooting to death of Samantha Belle on March 18, 2006. State Prosecutor, Miss Renita Singh who along with Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin is conducting the case for the prosecution closed the case for the prosecution after the testimony of five witnesses including Superintendentt Lawrence Kissoon who conducted the Identification Parade at which the accused was picked out.
Kissoon’s evidence about his parade was not very helpful to the prosecution as he admitted that certain rules were not followed.
In the event that the judge finding that the prosecution had made out a case for the accused to answer,   the judge will call on the accused for a defence and the matter will be sent to the jury for their consideration and verdict.
But should the judge finding be to the contrary the accused will be freed at this stage.
During the trial, star witness for the prosecution, Alicia Griffith, the sister of the deceased who claimed that she was present when the short dark man with cap, accompanied by a brown skinned man, shot her sister and took away her scooter admitted that there was conflict in her testimony in relation to lights at the scene outside St. Sidwell’s Church, and Street lights.
The current trial is a retrial the jury having disagreed at the original trial years ago when the then trial judge discharged the jury and ordered a new trial for the accused.
When the new trial began before Justice Franklyn Holder and a mixed jury at the Demerara Assizes, Griffith told the court about how her sister Samantha Belle was robbed of her motor scooter on the night of March 18, 2006, by the accused and another man, under street lights and lights from the St Sidwell’s school and church and the Old Folks home.
But under cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr. Ronald Burch-Smith on Wednesday, the witness Alicia Griffith admitted that she did not tell the police any thing about the lights that night as recorded in her three statements to the police.
The counsel is contending that there were no lights and that the presence of lights was a “make up story”.
The witness admitted that some of the lights recorded in her statements were not of her own making although she had signed same.
She said that although she had signed the statements as being true and correct, she never really read same although it had been given her to read. “I only looked at the document”, she said.
Witness admitted that she said that the accused was a short dark-skinned man while the other man in the robbery was a fair-skinned man. She agreed that a short dark skinned man could refer to anybody.
The witness admitted that she had not given the description and mannerism of the accused until after she had identified him at an Identification Parade.
When asked why, she explained that no one had questioned her about that.
Following the evidence of Detective Supt. Lawrence Kissoon, Prosecutor Renita Singh closed the case for the prosecution.
At that stage Mr. Ronald Burch-Smith, defence counsel elected to make a no-case submission in the absence of the jury.
Superintendent Kissoon who had conducted the Identification Parade at which the accused was picked out by Alicia Griffith, the sister of the deceased, had given evidence about the parade.
Earlier, in her opening address,  Prosecutor Renita Singh, said that on the evening in question, 18th March 2006, Samantha Belle and her sister Alicia Griffith, together with Griffith’s infant daughter, went on Belle’s scooter to Luther’s Internet Café on Durban Street to make a  telephone call to their mother who resides in the United Kingdom.
After they left the Café, they returned to Belle’s home at 74 Durban Street where Griffith collected her daughter’s belongings as Belle was dropping her (Alicia) and her daughter home. Griffith and her daughter   walked from Belle’s home through a short cut which leads to Vlissengen Road where they waited for Belle to turn up on her scooter.
Two men were sitting under a nearby shed came up to them. One of the men held on to the throttle of Belle’s scooter while the other man attempted to remove the keys from the ignition.
The man who was holding on to the throttle ordered Belle to get off the bike. However, Belle did not comply but kept hitting away the hands of the man who was trying to remove the keys from the ignition.
The prosecutor went on to state, “When Griffith testifies, she will tell you that Belle said to this man who was trying to remove the keys, “I know you. How you gon do this to me?”   He then told her to get off the bike and stuck a gun in her hip.
Griffith, said the prosecutor, told her sister to get off the bike and give it to them. Belle got off the bike but when one of the men sat on the bike, Belle began screaming “thief, thief”.
Griffith also ran across Vlissengen Road where she also shouted for “help” and “thief”. Griffith saw an approaching vehicle and ran back over to where her sister was with the two men. The man with the gun shot Belle who then collapsed.
The two men rode off on Belle’s scooter. Belle was placed in a vehicle and taken to the Georgetown Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Griffith has positively identified the man who shot her sister as this accused, Rayburn Harvey the prosecutor has said.
When the hearing continues today, the judge will deliver his ruling.