Neville France, the youth who police say broke into the home of Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara resident Tameshwarie Sonilal and stabbed her to death on Sunday night, was charged with the crime and remanded to prison on Thursday.
France, a 21-year-old of Canal Number One, was arraigned at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court, where he appeared before Magistrate Crystal Lambert.
It is alleged that France murdered Sonilal, also known as Laila Ramnauth, on April 26. He was not required to plead to the charge and was remanded to prison until June 25, when his next hearing is slated.
Police say Sonilal was stabbed multiple times about her body after France had invaded her home. Police have said that the motive of the crime was rape.
After the woman’s screams for help pierced the silence of the community on Sunday night, neighbours rushed to her rescue but found the doors locked. They reportedly broke open a door and saw France inside the house. He, however, managed to flee. He was held the following morning along the De Kinderen Public Road, West Coast Demerara.
A relative of the deceased told this newspaper that the suspect was found inside the woman’s bedroom, on a ledge close to the roof. Neighbours called on him to come down but he didn’t and as a result they pushed him down.
She added that after the suspect fell, he and the men who had entered the house had a scuffle and one of the men was chopped. As the scuffle continued, the suspect managed to shatter the light and escaped. “The men run out the house and surround the downstairs. They were pelting him and trying to get him down but the outside light burst and the place gone in darkness and the boy [suspect] managed to jump over the neighbour yard and onto the conservancy dam and got away. The men run behind and the police as soon as they reach went behind him too but he got away,” the relative said.
While some neighbours were chasing behind the suspect, others went into the house and made the gruesome discovery of Sonilal’s body in a pool of blood. A knife, which is suspected to be the murder weapon, was found next to the body.
