Laing Ave murder accused freed

– magistrate upholds no-case submissions
Murder accused Aman Lalchand was cleared of the execution-style killing of George Barton at Laing Avenue last year following successful no-case submissions by his attorney in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Aman Lalchand
Aman Lalchand

Magistrate Susanna Lovell found Lalchand had no case to answer and discharged him. Her ruling came at the close of the prosecution’s case and subsequent submissions by attorney-at-law Basil Williams.

Lalchand also known as Randy Persaud was charged with the capital offence on May 22, 2008 before Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle. It was alleged that he murdered Barton called ‘Berlin’ at Laing Avenue on March 20, 2008.

The Preliminary Inquiry (PI) was conducted before Magistrate Hazel Octave Hamilton, but was aborted after 14 months. Reports are that Lalchand’s conduct during the hearing led to the case being transferred to another court. The second PI later commenced before Magistrate Lovell.

Williams, in his submissions, essentially argued that the identification parade, from which Lalchand was picked out from among 11 persons, was flawed.  He pointed to the absence of an eyewitness saying there was no evidential basis upon which the identification parade could have been composed. He said also no description of the shooter was given to the police. “The police C19 and C5 identification parade forms did not state the ethnicity, complexion, height, size and or hairstyle of the men on parade. It was therefore anybody’s guess as to how the police determined who should comprise the parade,” Williams submitted.

George Barton
George Barton

Williams further argued that there was no other evidence adduced against the accused. He said that while civilian and police witnesses were called during both PIs no testimony came from an eyewitness.

In March 2008, Barton was executed at Laing Avenue in a well-planned attack. Reports were that he went to Laing Avenue in the company of his teenage daughter after he received a telephone call. As they made their way through the street just after 8 pm, a car with four men pulled up alongside them. One of the occupants shouted, “B”, referring to Barton before opening fire at him. He was shot in his back, neck and legs.

The car drove up a little and turned around and a gunman armed with a smaller gun fired several rounds at Barton’s daughter, Anika, hitting her thrice in the knee and in the buttocks. It was reported that seconds before she was shot, one of the occupants of the car had said that she had to be killed as well. The young woman never testified in court during either preliminary inquiry because of fear, which she had also expressed immediately after the shooting. No motive was ever ascertained for the attack.

Lalchand was not charged in relation to the injuries Anika Barton suffered. Police had issued a wanted bulletin for him saying he had several pending matters in court. He was later apprehended and charged with murder.