A state witness testified on Thursday to witnessing murder accused Christopher Singh and Devendra Bushram brutally rob and stab a man after a floodlights cricket match on the East Coast in 2010.
Singh and Bushram, also known as ‘Bird Brains’ are on trial for the murder of Javed Mohamed, 23, of 636 Best Plantation, West Coast Demerara.
Mahadeo Mangal testified that he had known the two men for a number of years before the murder. On the night of the murder, he had just finished watching a floodlights cricket match at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara when he saw Bushram having an argument with a man outside of the ground.
He said peacemakers intervened and the man walked away. A while after that, he recalled Singh confronting him and asking him if he had a knife but he told him no. He said he lied to Singh since he had a knife that he would peel fruits with. Singh, however, he said, did not take his word and decided to search him.
He said Singh found the knife and strapped it to his arm, all the while saying that he was going to rob someone. Singh went away and he left with a man named Johnathan Bacchus. He said they had reached the road when they saw a man cross the road and stand in the corner, waiting to catch a bus.
He recalled that they had just passed the man when they heard someone say, “thief!”
They turned around and saw “two lil boys” next to the man; one of the boys snatched his chain and ran into a street. He said the man ran behind the young boys and ran out of the street a few minutes later.
Mangal recounted that when the man ran out, he saw Bushram run behind him and snatch his band off his hand. He said the man picked up a piece of wood to fight off Bushram but Singh came and pulled out a knife from his arm and started to stab him.
The man fell to the ground and Bushram picked up a long piece of wood and started to lash him about his body, the witness said.
Mangal said he got scared and ran away. He said he went to a bar in Better Hope, a while later, and saw Singh there. He said while he was buying cigarettes he heard Singh say: ‘I just done someone.’
He recalled walking up to Singh and confronting him about his knife. He said when Singh handed him his knife there was a red substance on it. He said he got scared again and threw the knife in a trench because he did not want to get involved in “police matter.”
Yet, he said he was curious about what had happened to the man he saw being beaten. He decided to return to the spot where the robbery took place but when he got there all he saw was a pool of blood, the man was not there.
Mohamed was picked up by a police patrol in the area and was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Later, the witness said, the police went to his house and he gave them a statement about what had occurred.
Attorney Raymond Ali, who represents Bushram, questioned him about whether he felt responsible for what happened to Mohamed since it was his own knife that was used.
“No. Because I didn’t have intentions to do something like that,” he responded.
Mangal said the police took him to the morgue to identify whether if the body that they picked up on patrol was that of the man he saw being beaten and robbed.
Mohamed’s sister, Shazana Mohamed, had also testified that she had identified his body. Another witness, Rickey Parboo, testified that his then 14-year-old brother was picked up by the police after the incident. He said his brother gave a statement to the police, admitting that he had snatched Mohamed’s chain and ran away
Singh is represented by George Thomas, while senior state attorney Judith Gildharie-Mursalin is presenting the state’s case.
According to reports “cricket-loving” Mohamed had left his West Coast to watch the match with his friends. He was stabbed in his chest.
The trial was adjourned until Monday.
