A month after his former co-accused admitted guilt and were sentenced for their roles in a series of 2009 crimes, Colin Jones yesterday copped to 12 charges, including three counts of manslaughter, the attempted murder of policemen and setting a section of the Supreme Court on fire, for which he will spend the next 25 years behind bars.
Jones, called “Bonnie,” pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter for the November 4, 2009, unlawful killing of Woodette Roberts. He was indicted for murder, but his plea to the lesser charge was accepted by Justice Navindra Singh, who imposed a 25-year sentence at the High Court in Georgetown.
Meanwhile, for the November 26, 2010 unlawful killings of Adriano Tracey and Kurt Thierens, Jones was sentenced to 15 years for each count of manslaughter.
For the attempted murder of Roopchand Gopaul, whom he tried to suffocate, the convict was handed a 10-year sentence.
For maliciously setting fire to the Georgetown Supreme Court, the judge sentenced him to 12 years. The convict, who stood calmly in the prisoner’s dock, was also charged with the November 4, 2009 attempted murders of Police Constables Dharmendra Indrapaul and Rajendra Singh, whom he shot at, while they were on duty at the Brickdam Police Station.
He was sentenced to 10 years on each count.
He was also handed down a six-year sentence for each count of causing grievous bodily harm to the constables, whom he intended to maim, disfigure or disable, after shooting at them.
Jones also told the court that he was guilty of wounding the two officers with the intent to maim them, for which he was also sentenced to six years in prison for each count.
The final two charges against Jones, for which he was handed an additional six years in jail, stated that on November 4, 2009, he had one grenade and 24 7.62 rounds of ammunition without a licence.
Justice Singh ordered that all the sentences run concurrently. As a result, Jones will serve a maximum of 25 years in jail.
The judge told the convict that it was his hope that by the time he is released from prison, he would be better behaved.
Jones was represented by attorney George Thomas. The indictments, meanwhile, were presented by Prosecutor Siand Dhurjon.
On April 5, Randy Mars, called “Ratty,” Jafar Simpson, and David Anthony Watson, called “Tupac,” were all sentenced to spend the next 19 years in jail for all the charges that Jones pleaded to yesterday, except those related to the unlawful killings of Tracey and Terrence, which were not laid against them.
Killings
Roberts, called ‘Buckman’ and ‘DJ Stress,’ left his home at around 9 pm on November 4 2009 in a gold coloured Toyota Tacoma pick-up land cruiser, GLL 7171, driven by Gopaul, 38, with Sean Embleton, called ‘Deportee Sean,’ 25, as the other occupant.
They were reportedly on their way to an area called ‘Frenchman’ to mine gold and diamonds.
The three men were intercepted at around 12.15am the following day in the vicinity of Loo Creek, Linden/Soesdyke Highway, when a white Toyota wagon and a silver-grey motor car overtook them and flagged them down, using a red triangular reflector like the ones used by police.
The police subsequently reported that eight men, dressed in black clothing resembling police uniforms, and bullet-proof vests, including one marked ‘Police,’ exited the vehicles and identified themselves as policemen searching for arms and ammunition.
During that time, two persons dressed in civilian clothing and driving a grey Carina motor car, approached and spoke to the men in uniform and went off in the direction of Dora.
The armed men duct-taped and handcuffed Roberts, Gopaul and Embleton and placed them in the tray of the Tacoma pick-up and drove off.
The men were then deposited at separate locations and the perpetrators left the area in the vehicle.
Gopaul, who reportedly ran all the way from Dora to Kuru Kururu, and Embleton managed to escape from their captors, while Roberts was later found dead just off a trail at Dora. He died from suffocation.
According to the police, the hijacked pick-up was later used to launch armed attacks on the Brickdam Police Station, the East La Penitence Police Outpost and the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, following his arrest in November, 2010, Jones told the police that he had murdered two men and later led ranks to shallow graves in the Kara Kara Creek backlands, where the bodies of Ministry of Health arson accused Thierens, called ‘Glasses’ of Middle Walk, Buxton, East Coast Demerara, and Tracey, of William Street, Kitty, Georgetown, were found.
Jones, police had said, confessed that he had killed one of the two men several days prior, while he killed the other in October of the same year. (Femi Harris)
