Shawn Henry, the man charged with the murder of Dharamchand Mangra in the North West District three years ago, was yesterday discharged of the capital offence by Magistrate Alan Wilson due to insufficient evidence.
The preliminary inquiry (PI) into the matter concluded at the Georgetown Magis-trates’ Court, where the magistrate informed that he was going to discharge the accused, since there was a lack of adequate evidence to commit him to stand trial in the High Court. Wilson, in his ruling, said that a prima facie case was not made out against Henry and as such he was going to have the matter against him discharged. The court heard that no finger prints were ever taken from the accused in order to ascertain whether he was present at the scene.
The allegation was that on April 27, 2007, Henry murdered Mangra. According to initial reports, four gunmen invaded a Port Kaituma shop, fatally wounding gold and diamond dealer, Mangra, before carting off with some $3M.
Mangra, 23, of Bush Lot Essequibo Coast, was air dashed from the North West district location to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) on April 21st 2007 but subsequently succumbed to his injuries the following day. The man had worked as a purchaser of gold and diamonds in Region One.
On the night of the murder, the man had just locked the office, which he was manning with another employee, when the gunmen broke open the door and stormed in. The gunmen began shooting indiscriminately and according to reports Mangra and the other man tried to stave them off when he was fatally shot.
