Three men were yesterday charged with murder after the gunning down of Coast Guardsman Kevon Payne and the suspected reprisal killing of Gladstone “Tuffy” Taylor in Charlestown.
Delon Small was charged with the murder of Payne, while Payne’s brother, Vellone Thorne and another man, Trifon Parris, were jointly charged with the murder of Taylor.
All three men were read their respective charges by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown and were not required to plead.
Small, called ‘Sound,’ is alleged to have murdered Payne on March 29th.
The police had said that Payne was among a group of men standing on the roadway at Lyng and Sussex streets, Charlestown, when two men armed with firearms rode up on a motorcycle and discharged rounds in their direction.
Small was represented by attorney Glenn Hanoman, who stated that the alias ‘Sound’ does not belong to his client but to another individual. He added that Small and a few other men had provided their names to the police in order to give alibi evidence but he was later held for the offence.
He further stated that no statements have been filed by the prosecution and requested that the case file be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
Hanoman told the court that the accused was nowhere near the scene of the crime and that there are persons who were present in court that would be able to support his alibi. He added that those persons would have visited the police station to give statements but were not allowed to do so.
Hanoman further stated that a female eyewitness alleges that on the day of the murder she had seen a truckload of police officers pass and fire shots at the deceased.
Subsequent to hearing Hanoman’s submissions, the Chief Magistrate requested that the investigating rank take the contact information of the witnesses in court and set a time for their statements to be taken.
She then remanded the defendant and adjourned the matter to April 20th.
Meanwhile, the charge against Thorne, 30, a jeweller and Parris, 21, a student at the Government Technical Institute, states that on April 1st, at Georgetown, they murdered Taylor.
The defendants were remanded to prison and the matter was adjourned to April 29th.
Taylor’s death is suspected to be a reprisal killing after the murder of Payne.
Taylor, of Adelaide and Sussex streets, Charlestown, was sitting in a chair in front of his residence when two men rode up on a motorcycle last Friday night.
One of the men, who was armed with a gun, discharged several rounds at Taylor and they escaped on the motorcycle.
Police sources had revealed that these two killings were linked since there was an ongoing feud between the two parties over a period of time.
