A murder accused was found hanging in his cell in the Georgetown Prison late Sunday night, according to the police.
The dead prisoner has been identified as Brian Blount of Coomacka Mines, Linden. Police gave the dead man’s name as Brain Blunt but persons in the mining town said that his last name was spelt Blount.
In a short press release issued yesterday afternoon, the force said, “investigations are being conducted into the death of Brian Blunt, 26 years, who was found hanging in his cell in the Georgetown Prison at about 2310h. last night Sunday July 28, 2013”.
When contact was made with Prison Headquarters, this newspaper was told that nothing could be said on the matter as a statement was to be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Up to press time last evening no statement had been issued.
Stabroek News was unable to make contact with the man’s relatives, but according to a family friend Blount was frustrated. This newspaper was told that his case came up at the Christianburg Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday and was adjourned to August 27.
The family friend, who did not want her name mentioned, said that on Saturday the young man ended up on the prison roof, where he professed his innocence and stressed that he needed justice.
This newspaper was told that while incarcerated Blount kept to himself and had no problems with anyone.
Explaining why he took so long to be placed before the court, the woman said that Blount had attended a wake and sometime later while at the hospital, where he had gone to seek medical attention since he was feeling unwell, he heard that a body was found and that the police were looking for him.
The woman said the young man panicked and ended up moving to the North West District where he found a job. Sometime this year, there was a fire at a house where he was staying which resulted in the death of a child, the woman said, adding that the police somehow received information that he was at that location and went and arrested him.
The allegation against Blount was that between March 10 and 12, 2012 he murdered Ernest Persaud.
He made his first court appearance in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on February 14.
Police Prosecutor Burgett Grant had stated that accused and Persaud were known to each other.
She explained that on March 10, the defendant and the deceased were in a house when they had a heated argument concerning the defendant’s wife.
She further stated that the defendant, who was armed with a knife, slit Persaud’s throat and threw him into the Demerara River. She added that the body of the deceased later surfaced.
Earlier this year another prisoner was found hanging in his cell. Deodat Sookhoo, 41, a Corentyne, Berbice man, who was committed to stand trial for murder in the High Court on December 13, 2010, was found hanging in his cell at the New Amsterdam Prison in January.
The Prisons Directorate said the inmate “was found hanging in his cell in an apparent suicide in the Main Prison Block at the New Amsterdam Prison at approximately 15:45 hrs.”
According to the prison administration, preliminary investigations have revealed that the prisoner, who was usually located in the Remanded Dining Hall during the day, had been locked alone in his cell on the number three landing of the main prison block at approximately 15:15 hrs.
When the rank responsible for lockdown duties returned to the cell with Sookhoo’s two cell mates, the release said, his lifeless body was found hanging from a bed sheet which had been tied to the ventilation above his cell door.
