A 24-year-old man charged with the unlawful killing of an 18-year-old woman appeared before Magistrate Chandra Sohan at the Fort Wellington Court yesterday.
It is alleged that on May 24 Leroy Robertson, a former policeman of Lichfield, West Berbice, unlawfully killed Elsie Shenetta Culley at Number 40 Village.
Police prosecutor, Sergeant Donna Grant-Fraser asked that bail be refused on the grounds of the nature and gravity of the offence. She submitted that the defendant is a flight risk and if placed on bail it is likely that he would not attend trial.
Cully was pronounced dead on arrival at the Fort Wellington Hospital where she was rushed with burn marks on two fingers of her left hand.
A post-mortem examination found that she died from electrocution.
Stabroek News understands that Culley was alone at home doing laundry when the defendant whom she reportedly started “talking to a few weeks ago” approached her from the back of the yard.
Reports are that he sent her into the house for a phone but a neighbour who was also in her yard and heard the exchange told her not to go.
Culley, a work-study student at the Lichfield Health Centre, did not heed the neighbour’s advice and proceeded into the house. Robertson reportedly followed her and shortly after she started to scream.
The matter has been transferred to the Weldaad Magistrate’s Court and the defendant is scheduled to return to court on June 12.
