Vinod Gopaul, called ‘Magga’, 34, of Yakusari, Black Bush Polder, Corentyne, Berbice and Anil Sancharra, called ‘Dan Pole’ and ‘Rasta’, 33, of D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB) were today committed to stand trial for the Henry boys murders.
The duo appeared today before Magistrate Peter Hugh at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court where he ruled that a sufficient case was made out against both murder accused by the Police Legal Advisor Mr. Mandel Moore.
As such, they were committed to stand trial at the next convenient sitting at the Berbice Assizes.
Gopaul and Sancharra were jointly charged and remanded to prison on January 15, 2021 for the murders of teen cousins, Isaiah and Joel Henry in the Cotton Tree ‘backdam’, WCB.
The badly mutilated bodies of the cousins, aged 16 and 19, were found one day after they had gone to pick coconuts in the Number Three Village backdam.
A post-mortem found that the two teenagers died of haemorrhage and shock, due to multiple incised wounds. They both sustained severed spines, along with multiple chops about the body. The killers went so far as to carve out a huge ‘X’ on Isaiah’s head, and cut open Joel’s chest.
The main witness is 21-year-old Akash Singh called ‘Monkey’, who is the younger brother of Anil Sancharra, one of the murder accused.
The witness testified that he (Akash) went to the backdam with his brother (Anil) and friend (Vinod) and observed that their weed (marijuana) farm was sprayed down. They slept there in the backdam that night and the following morning when he (Akash) woke up, he saw the two accused (Anil and Vinod) and the two deceased (Joel and Isaiah) sitting together.
According to the witness, Vinod was the accused that told the two deceased (Joel and Isaiah) about their weed farm being sprayed down and both deceased looked at each other then started laughing.
Vinod then told them, “I talking about the weed farm spray down and y’all laughing, like y’all know something what going on. Y’all gotta start feel pain…”
The witness said one of the deceased tried to get up and Vinod chopped him to his neck with a cutlass and Anil started to chop the other deceased.
The witness testified that he started to see blood spilling profusely from the two cousins (deceased) and then one of the accused told him (Akash), in a threatening manner, that he “gah do something to”.
Akash said he was told to “put the X” on the head of one of the Henry boys. The witness said he took the cutlass and put an ‘X’ (mark) on the forehead of one of the deceased (Isaiah Henry).
During the PI, Akash was easily able to positively identify both suspects (murder accused) as one is his brother and the other is his brother’s friend, who would come home by them.
Akash Singh testified twice last year, the first time on November 8, 2021 which was via Zoom and then on November 30th, 2021 at the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court, where he was crossed examined by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd.
This was the crucial evidence that Mandel Moore and his team relied on, and the witness maintained the story when crossed examined by Todd.
Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh was the second witness to give evidence in court.
Singh testified on December 7, 2021 at Blairmont Magistrate’s Court, where he tendered the two post mortem reports for the Henry boys. The reports noted that both of the deceased had several incised wounds on their bodies.
When questioned whether the wounds could have been caused by a cutlass, Dr. Singh responded in the affirmative, which supports the testimony given by Akash Singh that the duo were chopped several times.
