A 57-year-old labourer, who is accused of fatally stabbing Plaisance shopkeeper Sharon Burnett on Monday morning, was remanded to prison on Thursday after being charged with murder.
The charge was read to Samuel Cummings, called ‘Dougla’, a resident of Lot 48 Graham Street, Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, by Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.
He was not required to plead to the indictable charge and was remanded to prison until February 6th.
Regional Commander Royston Andries-Junor had previously told Stabroek News that Cummings, who suffers from epilepsy, had been hospitalised. He was discharged on Thursday.
Burnett, a mother of three of Lot 47 Graham Street, Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, was stabbed to death around 12.30 am on Monday, allegedly by her neighbour, Cummings, who had publicly threatened to kill her after accusing her of putting a monkey to steal from him.
Burnett was stabbed once to the neck and later pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The woman owned and operated a small grocery shop, situated in front of her house, for over 20 years. Relatives said that she would sleep in the shop.
Residents had told this newspaper that minutes before the stabbing, Cummings allegedly set a freezer outside of Burnett’s shop on fire. The smoke alerted her and when she opened the shop to check, she was attacked by the man.
Police, in a statement, had said that about 8pm on Saturday, Cummings went to Burnett’s shop and accused her of sending her monkey to steal money from his house. As a result, they had an exchange of words during which the man allegedly threatened to kill her. The police added that the suspect returned early Monday morning to Burnett’s shop and they had a confrontation and he allegedly stabbed her.
An autopsy showed that Burnett died as a result of the stab wound to the neck.
Burnett turned 54 on the day she was fatally attacked.
