– deceased’s relatives slam justice system
By Vahnu Manikchand
For the second time in less than a year, Cyon “Picture Boy” Collier will have to be retried after the jury was deadlocked on deciding a verdict. Collier was indicted with the murder of two brothers, 34-year-old Ray “Sugar” Walcott and 31-year-old Carl “Alo” Andrews at Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara, on September 23, 2006.
This trial began on October 18 before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court during which Senior State Counsel Judith Gildarie-Mursalin called several witnesses to testify against the accused after which she closed her case on Wednesday. The defence’s case was heard on Thursday.
On Friday, the prosecutor and defence attorney Lyndon Amsterdam made closing arguments, and then on Monday, Justice Singh summed up the evidence presented. This process took just over two hours after which the panel retired to the jury room to deliberate on a verdict.
After spending some four hours in deliberation, jurors returned around 16: 30h to a packed courtroom and informed the presiding judge that they were unable to arrive at a unanimous verdict for both offences.
For Walcott’s case, the jury was equally divided on Collier’s guilt, while eight jurors believed he was guilty and four not guilty in the case of Andrews.
The trial judge subsequently related to Collier that the jury was not able to reach a unanimous verdict; hence, the trial has to be redone. Justice Singh then ordered a retrial in the next criminal assizes, and further remanded the man to prison. This will be the third time Collier will have to undergo a retrial for this double murder. The first trial, which was held in October and ran until December of last year, resulted in a hung jury after six hours of deliberation.
Family rage
Meanwhile, this second hung jury was not accepted by the relatives of the deceased. They vented their anger against the justice system which they said has repeatedly failed to deliver them the justice they are seeking for the loss of not only one but two family members. They are calling for the jury system to be abolished, noting that there is no security in using it, since the jurors can easily be contacted and bribed.
The relatives further alleged that some of the jurors were paid off on behalf of the accused. They disclosed that after the decision was made, a juror was seen showing the relatives of the accused “thumbs up”. “It is disgusting what happened here today. There is no justice for people who don’t have money in this country, all these lawlessness got to stop,” one relative stated.
This is not the first time the family is making such allegations. At the previous trial, they named four jurors who had connections with the defence attorney.
Collier is also awaiting a retrial for another charge, which had resulted in a hung jury. In that matter, he is accused of the murder of Chandrapaul “Kero Man” Persaud, a Nonpareil, East Coast Demerara businessman, on September 30, 2006.
He had faced trial for this murder in October of 2011; after the hung jury, presiding judge, Justice Winston Patterson ordered a retrial.
During a robbery at his home, Persaud put up a fight and was shot to death outside his house by one of the three gunmen, who invaded his home.
