Dennis Veerasammy and Basheer Harrinauth—two of the three men who were last month handed life sentences for the 2015 murder of Corentyne labourer, Shameer Ally—have appealed their conviction and sentence.
The third person—Delroy Fraser—had also been convicted for the crime, but died before being sentenced.
A jury had found the trio guilty of the October 24th, 2015 murder of Ally, also known as ‘Kazak.’
Citing among other things the seriousness of the offence and the use of a firearm to carry out the act, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow imposed the life sentences against Veerasammy and Harrinauth.
In their appeals lodged with the Guyana Court of Appeal, however, the Appellants have argued among things that the judge failed to adequately direct the jury on the law regarding joint enterprise.
They are contending, too, that the judge fell into error in not upholding a no-case submission presented on their behalf.
They argue that the only purported evidence against them is a caution statement, the contents of which they had challenged at the trial.
According to them, the testimony of the eyewitness “was rendered manifestly unreliable after cross examination and would show that the contents of the caution statement were incapable of belief.”
They have expressed the view that the judge wrongly admitted that statement into evidence, while arguing that the police officer who purportedly took the statement had admitted that he was untruthful in putting the allegation to them.
“In effect a misrepresentation or trick was used by the taker of the purported statement in order to obtain it,” Veerasammy and Harrinauth contend.
They complain, too, that certain remarks made by the prosecution may have influenced the jury and may even be regarded as an abdication of the duty to enable a fair trial.
Ally, 36, a labourer of Grant 1805 Weld Tank Dam, Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, was found dead by police, who went to his house to arrest him after a report was made against him.
He had sustained a single gunshot wound and was lying in a pool of blood a few feet away from his door.
Stabroek News had reported that residents of the community had suggested that Ally’s murder may have stemmed from old grievances he had with an individual in the area.
Investigations revealed that Ally had misunderstandings with several persons on the night of his death, including the husband of a woman with whom he shared an intimate relationship.
At the beginning of the trial, the prosecutor had told the jury that the state’s case encompassed that the deceased and the accused were well known to each other since they had a work relationship at some point.
There was an incident between Fraser and Ally, where Veerasammy, who was present, threatened to kill Ally, after which he was later found dead.
