Sean Dos Santos and Stephon Howard yesterday both said that they are innocent of the charges levelled against them over the shooting and killing Abdool Fazal Saheed during a robbery at Freeman Street, East La Penitence just over four years ago.
The jointly-charged men were at the time leading their respective defences in unsworn testimony before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow and a jury at the High Court in Demerara following the close of the prosecution’s case.
They are accused of murdering Saheed in the wee hours of September 24, 2017 at Lot 194 Freeman Street in the furtherance of a robbery.
For his part, Dos Santos, who said he was 19 years old when he was arrested, told the court that he never confessed to the crime as claimed by the police.
He said that all he told investigators, was that he had no knowledge of the offence levelled against him. “I am innocent of this crime,” he said.
Howard’s story was the same. He told the court that he was 17 years old at the time and that the police had gone to his home, which they ransacked before taking him into custody where he was later charged. “I don’t know anything that they are speaking about,” he said.
Both young men said that they had been placed on identification parades which they described as being unfairly conducted.
The matter will be called again on Monday morning when the defence and prosecution will present closing addresses to the jury.
In her opening address at the commencement of the trial, Prosecutor Cicelia Corbin said that on that fateful morning of the shooting, the Saheed family was immersed in preparations for the memorial of their patriarch, when they were pounced upon by bandits who invaded their home.
Corbin had said that little did the unsuspecting family know, the peace of their night, would be shattered and transformed into funeral arrangements for a loved one.
She had said that brothers of the deceased—Abdool Shalim and Abdool Alim Saheed—who had also been shot during the ordeal and later admitted to hospital, had earlier arrived in Guyana along with a sister, for their father’s memorial service.
Police witnesses have testified to Dos Santos allegedly telling investigators that it was he and his co-accused who shot and killed Saheed during a robbery.
