A man was yesterday charged with the 2008 murder of Melissa Payne, who was shot dead during a robbery on the Agricola Public Road.
Sylvester Vanderhyden, 24, was read the murder charge by Chief Magis-trate Ann McLennan in Georgetown.
The charge stated that on November 6, 2008, at Agricola, East Bank Demerara, Vanderhyden, of 3974, Block ‘A’ Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, murdered Payne.
Vanderhyden, who would have been 15 at the time of the murder, was not required to plea to the indictable charge.
After Police Prosecutor Arvin Moore told the court that the police’s file was complete, Chief Magistrate McLennan remanded the accused and adjourned the matter to May 10, when a hearing will be heard before Magistrate Leron Daly.
Payne, 27, of Lot 56 Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, and her common-law husband John Fraser, also known as David Fraser, were proceeding to Georgetown when they were forced to stop because the truck they were travelling in encountered a mechanical problem.
Within minutes and while Fraser, a contractor, was attempting to fix the problem, gunmen, who were standing in an old shop across the road, approached and menaced them.
One approached Fraser and another went to Payne, while a third acted as a lookout. Fraser managed to run into oncoming traffic but Payne was unlucky as a gun had already been pressed against her side and she was commanded to hand over the handbag she was clutching.
From all accounts, the woman attempted to escape and was shot in the process, while the men fled through a nearby alleyway with her bag, which contained more than $100,000, as well as the two gold chains she had been wearing.
Payne, who sustained a single gunshot wound under her right armpit, was subsequently pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital.
