Rupununi farmer charged with wife’s murder

A Rupununi farmer was yesterday remanded to prison after being charged with killing his wife.

Peter Juan, 32, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in a Georgetown court, where he was read a charge which stated that on February 18, at Central Rupununi, Essequibo, he murdered Justil Leonard of Shulinab Village.

Peter Juan

Juan was not required to plead to the indictable charge.

Police Prosecutor Deniro Jones told the court that the police file is incomplete and that some additional statements are also outstanding.

Chief Magistrate McLennan remanded Juan to prison until March 7, when the case will be called again at the Lethem Magistrate’s Court.

‘F’ Division Commander Ravindradat Budhram had told Stabroek News that an autopsy found that Leonard, 47, died of a fractured skull and blunt force trauma to her head.

Stabroek News was told that Juan told police that he and his wife were drinking and she slipped and fell after she went to the washroom at their home.

After he found his wife unconscious, he told investigators, he rushed her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

However, the autopsy led police to the opinion that a misunderstanding between the husband and wife led to a fatal physical altercation between the man and his wife.