More than two weeks after the body of James Stuart was found at La Grange, West Bank Demerara with a wound to the head, a sixteen-year-old boy was on Wednesday charged with his murder.
The teen, who cannot be named because he is a minor, appeared in the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Christel Lambert and was not required to plead to the indictable charge that on July 17 he murdered Stuart.
He was represented by attorney Melvin Duke.
The matter was transferred to the Wale’s Magistrate’s Court, where it will be called again on September 9.
The body of Stuart, 50, of Unity Street, La Grange, was found on the morning of July 17, several corners away from his home.
His brother, Lloyd Richards, had told Stabroek News that his family had last seen Stuart on the night before the discovery. He had been drinking in a corner by himself at his sister’s rum shop and left sometime later in the night.
Richards said that the family was plunged into mourning after he received a call from a friend who informed that someone who looked like his brother had been found. He said the family’s worst fears were confirmed when he then rushed to the Ezekiel Funeral Home, where he saw his brother’s body.
“That don’t seem like nothing else but someone lash he in his head with a heavy object because when you go on the spot, you seeing blood everywhere. One spot got nuff then it got lil bit and then another spot got more. Like he get lash and try to run away but drop down and dead there,” he had said.
Richards had recalled that on several occasions before Stuart’s death, he was robbed and beaten while walking home. He was of the belief that the same occurred the night he met his demise.
A post-mortem examination revealed that Stuart died as a result of multiple injuries to the head.
