The four prison officers who were charged and remanded to prison for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to aid the escape of death row inmate and convicted mass murderer, Mark Royden Williams called “Smallie” were freed on Friday.
The prison officers are the head of security of the Mazaruni Prison, Alexander Hopkinson; Omar Whitherspoon; Conroy Hosannah, and Oldfield Romulus.
The others charged with the crime were Rajmohan Autor called ‘Chico’, 48, a businessman of Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); Frangeliz Jugandry Flores Perez, 28, a Venezuelan national of Kitty, Georgetown. They too were also freed.
The defendants appeared before Magistrate Crystal Lambert at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court during which their attorneys, Bernard Da Silva, Patrice Henry and Renea Marcus submitted a no-case submission which was upheld by the Magistrate.
Williams, known as “Smallie,” escaped from the Mazaruni Prison in May 2023 with the assistance of heavily armed men in a speedboat.
In February 2017, Williams was sentenced to death when a jury found him guilty of eight counts of murder in relation to the 2008 Bartica massacre, in which a dozen persons, including three police officers were shot dead.
Several months later, in July 2017, Williams escaped from the prison at Camp Street, Georgetown during a riot. It is believed that he was the mastermind.
However, he was nabbed on October 9, 2017, at Weldaad, West Coast Berbice (WCB), while travelling in a public minibus.
In 2013, Williams was acquitted after a 12-member jury found him not guilty of the charges against him in relation to the 2008 Lusignan massacre, which claimed the lives of 11 persons, including five children.
Last Year, he was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer Ivor Williams.
