Amid much drama and a heavy police presence, Shaka Chase, who has been accused of the murder of police corporal Romain Cleto, made his first court appearance yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
Chase, 26, of 169 East Ruimveldt was not required to plead to the indictable charge of murder when it was read to him and was remanded to prison.
Police Prosecutor Serg-eant Ramsahoye Rambajue told the court that the deceased, who was a serving member of the Guyana Police Force, was on patrol along with three other ranks at around 20:40 hrs in the vicinity of Avenue of the Republic and Regent Street, when they confronted a heavily tinted car. The occupants of the car discharged rounds, killing Cleto and wounding the other two officers.
Investigations were carried out, and the accused admitted that he and three others had committed the crime, the prosecutor said.
Attorney Nigel Hughes, who is appearing for Chase along with Mark Waldron and James Bond said his client told him that he had been tortured and then made to sign a statement.
Hughes said the police have refused to take the alibi statements from persons who could attest to the whereabouts of Chase on the night of the murder. He said one of these persons was a traffic officer and the other is the owner of the shop where Chase was all night at a barbeque.
Hughes told the court that while at a barbecue, his client was told that the police were calling his name in connection with the murder and he subsequently went down to the station along with two family members.
He said that his client remained in custody for three days and was then released and it makes no sense for him to confess to a crime he did not commit three weeks after.
He challenged the police prosecutor’s claim that Chase’s hand was swabbed and gunpowder residue found. He argued that if this was the case, then Chase should have been charged, rather than released and re-arrested three weeks later.
Hughes said his client told him that while in custody he was tortured and given a noxious substance to drink, which caused him to defecate himself. While falling in and out of consciousness, he was told to sign a statement, the content of which he was totally unaware.
Hughes told the court that the initial reports had pointed to a person of a different ethnicity and he didn’t understand how the police could arrest his client who is an African man with dreadlocks. “This is a case of victimisation by the police. The police have a legal duty to do to find the right killers,” he said.
Hughes said he took eight eyewitnesses to the CID headquarters to give statements, but the police refused to take any. He said he then took it upon himself to take the statements and he emailed them to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Early yesterday morning, he said, the DPP confirmed receipts of these statements. He expressed concern that the police made no effort to investigate the alibi that Chase was at a barbecue on the night of the murder.
When asked by Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry if the DPP has offered any advice in the matter, the prosecutor said that the file has not been sent to the DPP as yet.
The DPP is now set to review the case and Chase is to return to court on May 23. The prosecution is expected to call 17 witnesses.
Bond, who is also appearing for the accused, said the police’s conduct in relation to chase was terrible. He told the court that Chase had identified the three officers who tortured him. He said that Chase was tortured so much that he said he had no alternative but to sign the statement.
He said that after his client defecated himself five times, he was told to go to a pipe outside and throw away his underwear and was given a new one.
Armed with the evidence in a plastic bag in court yesterday, Bond said that acting on information he received, he went to the CID compound and found the underwear. He said it showed the police had all intentions of denying his client justice. He argued that they have no respect for Chase or the police officer who was killed.
Bond also told the court that a woman by the name of Natasha Blackman claimed she was beaten by the police into saying that she had seen Chase in a white car. Bond said he was ashamed of certain elements in the criminal justice system.
Waldron said that the brother of the accused appeared before the court on a different charge and it seemed like a particular group of officers has a personal vendetta against the Chase family. “They are always targeting the Chase family,” he said.
While being led out of the court, Chase shouted “Is lies they telling… I don’t know about any murder.”
Outside the court a large crowd braved the rain and gathered to get a glimpse of the accused. Several members of Chase’s family along with residents of his neighbourhood broke into tears and one woman even fainted as he was being led into the temporary holding cell. There was heavy police presence, and several barricades were pushed down as his relatives attempted to grab him. A female relative managed to get through the barricades and hugged him. Relatives screamed out that he was being framed for a crime he did not commit and that many persons can say where he was on the night of the murder.
Chase is well known to the police and has been charged before with attempted murder and armed robbery.
Meanwhile, the police issued a statement yesterday in which it “strongly” denied that Chase was “assaulted or tortured in any way while in police custody into admitting that he had committed the crime”.
