A jury on Monday found three men not guilty of killing an elderly rice-farming couple on the East Bank of Essequibo (EBE) in 2016 after the trial Judge had directed the panel to submit formal not-guilty verdicts due to insufficient evidence.
Before Demerara High Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow, Joel Blair; Shamudeen Mohamed, also known as “Milo”; and Jason Howard, also known as “Smelly”, had been on trial for the murders of Mohamed Munir and his wife Jamilla Munir, which occurred on April 17, 2016.
The couple were burnt to death during an arson on their Good Hope, EBE home.
After the joint murder charge was read to them, each of these accused had entered a not guilty plea and their trial commenced on Wednesday, October 4 with a voir dire.
After that vior dire, the Judge decided not to allow the caution statements that the three men were said to have given to the detectives to be admitted into evidence.
The prosecution was unable to build a prima facie case after these statements were excluded because they were the only available evidence.
As such, the defence’s no-case submissions were upheld by the trial Judge, who then instructed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty in favour of each accused person.
Consequently, the accused people were discharged.
These three accused were defended by a group of attorneys under the direction of Nigel Hughes. A team of State Counsel prosecuted the matter.
Former well-known rice growers Mohamed Munir, 75, and his wife Jamilla Munir, 69, were locked in their bedroom when a break-in attempt was made on their heavily-grilled house on April 17, 2016. The elderly couple, who were reportedly asleep, were awakened by noises, and were later ordered out of their bedroom by several males.
However, after the couple failed to comply with those orders, the perpetrators set a sofa in the home alight after tossing a fuel cylinder into the house, and that caused a huge explosion that set the house on fire, even as they then made good their escape.
Attempts by neighbours to rescue the couple, who were heard and seen screaming for help from a grilled window of their home, proved futile.
Their charred remains were discovered together after the blaze was doused.
Meanwhile, a jury cleared Howard in 2019 of an attempted murder charge.
This accusation was brought about by the shooting of a male security guard on October 20, 2016, during a robbery of an electronics store at the Fogarty’s Building on Water Street, Georgetown.
Then, in April 2019, he was found guilty of robbing a fruit vendor at gunpoint and given a 12-month prison sentence. In addition, he was charged with more armed robberies.
