The seven persons accused of killing Meten-Meer-Zorg grocer Zulfikar Namdar were yesterday acquitted after being found not guilty of the crime by a jury.
Alan Dorsett, called ‘Baird,’ ‘Fat Man,’ ‘Allan’ and ‘Dada;’ Delwayne Croft; Esan Lawrence, called ‘Muscle;’ Jermaine Williams, called ‘Yankee;’ Andrew Chandler, called ‘Sonic;’ Samuel Bacchus, called ‘Kirk;’ and Cassandra Dorsett, also known as Cassandra Singh-Dorsett were accused of murdering Namdar, called ‘Vicky,’ during the furtherance of a robbery committed on September 10th, 2013, at Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara.
Relatives of those on trial as well as those of the deceased filled the courtroom at the High Court in Georgetown yesterday afternoon as they anticipated the verdicts, which came after four hours of deliberations by the 12-member jury.
However, the silence in the courtroom diminished with the return of each not guilty verdict as relatives of those on trial exclaimed their relief from the gallery with loud whispers and, at one point, applause.
The verdicts were not lost on the accused either, particularly Cassandra Dorsett, who wept loudly in the courtroom upon hearing the not guilty verdict.
Outside of the courtroom, the situation resembled that of a homecoming as relatives embraced the men and the woman, who had each spent six years in prison while awaiting trial.
Cassandra Dorsett, when asked by members of the media about her regained freedom, described the moment as bittersweet as she reflected on the years she spent in prison for a crime she says she did not commit. “It was tough but there is a God and today he set me free,” the teary-eyed woman said before walking off with a relative.
Meanwhile, members of Namdar’s family, who have been attending the trial over the past three weeks, quietly exited the courtroom after the verdict.
Representing the accused in the matter were attorneys Nigel Hughes, George Thomas and Adrian Thompson, while the state was represented by Tuanna Hardy in association with Teriq Mohammed and Abigail Gibbs.
Namdar, 27, was shot dead when gunmen invaded his grocery store and home around 7.15 pm on the evening of September 10th, 2013, after which they carted off at least $1 million in cash.
Witnesses had recounted that about five gunmen invaded the shop and as Namdar stood at the counter, they shot him in his neck through the grillwork. His friend and shop help, 17-year-old Stephen Mohammed, was shot in his left thigh and was treated at the Leonora Cottage Hospital and discharged.
His mother, as she held her three-year old granddaughter, was also assaulted by the men, who demanded cash and jewellery.
