By Vahnu Manikchand
Notorious criminal Tyrone “Cobra” Rowe was on Tuesday jailed for 78 years after a jury found him guilty of murdering a Plaisance resident in August 2010. Rowe, 21, of Lot 268 Independence Boulevard, Albouystown, Georgetown, was indicted with the murder of Troy Collymore, called “Collie” and “Nelly” on August 7, 2010 during the robbery of a business at Plaisance Railway and Embankment, East Coast Demerara.
He was represented by Attorney Hukumchand Parag.
The trial of Rowe began last Wednesday before Justice Navindra Singh and a 12- member jury. State Counsel Teshana Lake prosecuted the case and presented nine witnesses, including two eyewitnesses.
The first witness, Constable Neil Thornhill testified that he was off duty and at the business place on the night in question when three armed men attacked.
The officer said he recognised “Cobra”, who was standing outside the premises with another accomplice, since he was a known character to the police. The accused was 17 years old at the time.
The other eyewitness, Chandrika Datt, the owner of the business, testified that after the robbery, he was called to pick out the perpetrators during an identification parade; however, the person that he pointed out was not Rowe.
He stated that the person he picked out was the one who held him at gunpoint in his pharmacy and took away a quantity of cash and eight laptop computers.
Closing addresses
The prosecutor initially had 13 witnesses; however, she only managed to call nine and closed her case on Monday after which the accused was called upon to lead his defence.
The young man elected to give an unsworn statement from the dock, declaring that he is innocent of the offence and knows nothing about it.
Afterwards, both the defence attorney and the prosecutor made their closing addresses to the jury.
Then on Tuesday, Justice Singh summed up the evidence presented during the trial before the jury panel retired to the jury room to deliberate on a verdict. Some three hours later, the panel returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty.
Before the sentence was imposed, the defence attorney made a plea for mitigation, asking the court to be lenient to his client.
However, the prosecutor requested the maximum sentence to be imposed, since the accused has other matters pending in court.
The trial judge, in delivering the sentence, started with a standard 60 years and added an additional 18 years taking all the aggravating factors into consideration.
When Justice Singh informed the accused that he was being sentenced to 78 years, the entire courtroom was stunned and wails from the accused’s family filled the air.
Rowe’s initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief. He was heard saying “Jah father” from the dock. He was asked whether he wanted to say anything before he was sent to prison, and he confidently said that he wanted to be freed from the charge, reiterating that he did not know anything about it.
As he was escorted to the prison’s holding area at the court, he was overheard telling his mother “it hit me to my heart”.
Killed
According to reports, during the robbery, on August 5, 2010 about 21: 45h, Datt’s friends, Noel Phillips, 48, and Troy Collymore, 35, were outside and had been held up by two other armed men, who took a quantity of jewellery and cash from Phillips, an overseas-based Guyanese.
Rounds were discharged resulting in the death of one of the perpetrators, Anthony “Bow Wow” Taylor.
Collymore and Phillips, along with 23-year-old Clyde Harris, were all injured and were admitted to the hospital for medical treatment.
Phillips was shot to his right arm and chest, while Harris received gunshot wounds to his left jaw, and Collymore was shot to his head.
Collymore was placed on a ventilator; however, he was already considered “brain dead” by doctors. Two days later on August 7, he was taken off the ventilator and was clinically pronounced dead at 12:00h.
