Alvin Reid, known as ‘Satan,’ the accused in the murder of a 14-year-old girl at Hope, East Coast Demerara, in 2016, was freed on Wednesday after Magistrate Peter Hugh dismissed the charge due to insufficient evidence to link him to the crime.
Reid, of Nimrod Street, Ann’s Grove, was accused of killing 14-year-old Malika Hamilton between August 8th and August 9th, 2016, at Hope.
The magistrate’s finding was made at the preliminary inquiry into the charge, which was being heard at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court.
Magistrate Hugh stated that prosecution failed to make out a prima facie case against Reid.
Police had said that Hamilton and Reid, who are known to each other, had gone for a swim in the Hope Canal on August 8th, which was the last day she was seen alive. She was later found floating in the canal on August 9th.
Her body was found several miles away from the Hope Canal bridge by residents of the community who had ventured into the canal to swim. A post-mortem examination revealed that she died from asphyxia due to drowning.
Hamilton, of Lot 11 Two Sisters Village, East Coast Demerara, had left home following an argument over the telephone with her father and did not return. Reid who managed to elude the police after being identified as a suspect, was eventually found hiding in a barrel in the Ann’s Grove cemetery a week later.
At his arraignment in 2016, Reid had alleged that police brutalised him for a confession. “They put a black bag over my face and beat me, look all me head,” he had said, while he showed the magistrate the visible marks about his body.
