Scheduled to face what would have been his third and final trial for the 2013 Mashramani Day murder of Enterprise businessman Kumar Mohabir; Devon Thomas has instead thrown himself at the mercy of the Court, pleading guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
When the matter was called yesterday at the High Court in Demerara, Thomas denied the capital indictment read to him, but admitted on the lesser count that he had unlawfully killed Mohabir on the day in question.
Justice Jo-Ann Barlow before whom the matter was called has deferred sentencing to November 11th to first hear from a probation officer.
Thomas had been jointly-charged for the murder with Randy Isaac.
Back in July, however, a jury unanimously acquitted Isaac, but was unable to arrive at a verdict regarding Thomas’ culpability.
The panel was hung in the proportion of 10 to 2 on the capital charge against Thomas.
That had been their second trial.
In 2015, they were convicted and sentenced by Justice Navindra Singh to 75 years each after a jury back then found them both guilty of murdering Mohabir on February 23rd, 2013.
The judge had ordered that they not be eligible for parole until after serving 40 years in jail.
Finding on appeal back in January that their defences had not been adequately and fairly put to the jury, however, the Court of Appeal ordered that they be retried.
Mohabir, 25, died of multiple stab wounds, in the wee hours of February 24th, 2013.
The state’s case is that on Mashramani Day—February 23rd, Kumar was out with his family, when he was attacked by Thomas and other persons. He succumbed to his injuries the following day.
In unsworn statements in their first two trials, both Thomas and Isaac had said that they were innocent of the charge levelled against them.
Main prosecution witness, Navindra Mohabir, Kumar’s brother, had testified that Thomas and Isaac, both of whom he said he knew well, were the men who stabbed and beat both him and his now dead brother.
Navindra had maintained under cross-examination that he was not mistaken about the identities of the two. “When I see them, I recognise them right away, ’cause I know them,” he had told the court.
Thomas is being represented by attorney Surihya Sabsook, while the indictment was presented by Prosecutor Sarah Martin.
