Remanded over ambush slaying of soldier

Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle yesterday remanded a 22-year-old man to prison after he appeared before her charged with the January murder of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) soldier Ivor Williams.

She also issued wanted bulletins for Guyana’s most wanted, Rondell `Fineman’ Rawlins and two others.
Sherwin Nero, known as Shawn Moses and ‘Catty’ of Dennis Street, Sophia and Buxton/Friendship has been charged together with Rawlins, Cecil Simone Rambarran called ‘Uncle Magic’ and ‘Limpy’ and Royden Durant called ‘Smally’  for the January 23 killing. However, Nero appeared alone in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning and was not allowed to plead to the indictable charge when it was read to him.
Reports are that around 8:30 pm on the day in question several armed men ambushed a GDF vehicle returning to Camp Ayanganna from an administrative run in Berbice. The gunmen engaged the soldiers on the Railway Embankment Road between Church of God and Company roads, during which Williams was fatally shot and two others, a soldier and a Friendship woman, were injured.
Neatly dressed in a fawn coloured shirt and a pair of jeans and sporting finger length plaits scattered on his head, he had an expressionless look  throughout the proceedings which lasted less than ten minutes.
He was unrepresented and made no effort to say anything in his defence.
Many in the courtroom were heard gasping and whispering when ‘Rawlins’ name was called out aloud by the orderly.
Police prosecutor Denise Griffith asked the court to issue a wanted bulletin for the other defendants, whom she described as fugitives. She said that they are on the run.
The magistrate subsequently granted the application before setting the case for June 27 at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court.
This is the second time that Nero is appearing in court on a charge of murder. On May 28, he was charged with the August killing of Kumar Singh called `Mango man’ at his Cove and John, East Coast Demerara home.
Durwin Wright, called ‘Rock Away’, of Vigilance South, East Coast Demerara was charged with the same murder on February 19, while 18-year-old Andrew Philander, called ‘Junior’ and ‘Gadget’ of 54 Middle Walk, Buxton, was also charged on February 25. This matter is being heard by Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court.
Meanwhile, Stabroek News was told by several police sources that Moses and the other two who are implicated in the soldier’s murder are believed to be part of the ‘Fineman’ gang.
It is believed that the other two who are still at large are on the run deep in Guyana’s jungle with the man law enforcement authorities say they want in connection with several high profile killings such as the Bartica and Lusignan massacres and the murder of former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh, his siblings and security guard.
Prior to that he was linked to pregnant teen Tenisha Morgan, who mysteriously vanished while on her way to a hospital in Georgetown. It was said that the teen was bearing Rawlins’ child. To date there has been no word from her relatives or the police as to her whereabouts.
Rawlins was held responsible for the two massacres.  Law enforcement made a breakthrough last Friday in responding to intelligence reports that Rawlins and his gang were hiding out at Christmas Falls some 300 miles up the Berbice River.
Around seven men opened fired on the joint services ranks and one of them – Otis ‘Mud-Up’ Fifee was shot and killed.
The other six men, including a man they say is Rawlins, however managed to escape leaving behind a cache of arms and ammunition, some of which have been confirmed by police as having been stolen from the Bartica Police Station the night that community came under siege by gunmen.
The security forces had also discovered that the men were housed in an area with four buildings.
They had foodstuff to last several weeks in a large kitchen, which also had a gas stove, generator and solar energy. In addition, there were six portable tents, four hammocks, three mattresses, a mini-stereo system, a DVD player, a cell phone, a hand-held radio set, items of clothing, medical supplies and a Bible.