Five murders and a suicide

Last Friday, a 30-year-old mother of one, Candy Rawlins, was stabbed to death in her home, allegedly by her husband, former local professional boxer Vidol Rawlins, who subsequently disappeared. The woman’s 11-year-old daughter had been tied up in the home, but managed to free herself and alert neighbours, but only after her stepfather had been long gone. Up to the time of the writing of this column, police had not found the woman’s husband.

On Saturday night/Sunday morning, the police were called over the discoveries of two dead bodies in south Georgetown; both had been violently stabbed. Jason John and Carlyle Sinclair were apparently victims of a crazed man who had a knife and the opportunity. Samuel Bristol, who subsequently turned himself into a human torch, confessed to killing John and Sinclair, though he had no beef with either of them. The newspaper was told that Bristol was engulfed in rage after having been jilted by his gay lover. John and Sinclair’s only connection to this conniption was that they too were gay.

On Sunday night, a West Bank Demerara man was stabbed in his neck and killed, reportedly by his reputed wife, who has since been arrested. Reports said 38-year-old Curtis McKinnon was stabbed during an argument with his wife Nicola Joseph over their 8-month-old child. At the time of the writing no charges had been laid against the woman.

On Monday, 52-year-old Alvy Richmond, a farmer and mechanic of Strath Campbell, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara was stabbed to death during an argument over the use of a washroom in his family home. The alleged assailant, his sister’s lover, had reportedly been in the bathroom when Richmond attempted to use it and this sparked a row, which ended with a knife being plunged into Richmond’s chest. The suspect was reportedly chased down and captured by villagers and handed over to the police. Again, no charges have yet been laid.

In all four of the cases referred to above, the knife was the weapon of choice/at hand and they all appear to be open and shut; the double murder even more so, since the suspect not only confessed but took his own life.

The task now falls to the investigators to do a few things. In the first case, they would need to find the suspect. In each case, they need statements from the suspects and these should be freely given; they also need statements from eyewitnesses. They need to establish motive too. Most of all, the police need to ensure that the evidence is garnered and secured. Chances are that given the laggardness which permeates the judicial process here, it will take a few years before there are High Court proceedings in these cases.

Successful prosecutions in murder, rape, armed robbery and others serious crimes in the High Court are not in the high percentages, or so anecdotal evidence suggests. In the system that currently obtains, a trained police officer presents the case for prosecution before a magistrate, who, based on the evidence determines whether a prima facie case has been made out to send it to the High Court for trial. When a case reaches the High Court, the evidence is presented by an attorney attached to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Often this happens years after the committal handed down by the magistrate. In that time, much can go awry, in terms of the preservation of evidence and the willingness and availability of witnesses to testify a second time. A witness’s memory of an incident can also give the jury pause and when there is doubt, cases that may have appeared airtight or open and shut end up being muddled. Two recent examples are the Sade Stoby murder in which the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the Anfernee Bowman murder in which the teen accused was acquitted. A retrial has been ordered in the former case and an appeal filed in the latter.

The police need to understand that justice is not done when a suspect is arrested and charged and that their role in ensuring justice does not end until there is a conviction. They should therefore do all they can to ensure that justice is obtained for Candy Rawlins, Curtis McKinnon and Alvy Richmond as well as all the others.