Sean Dos Santos and Stephon Howard are likely to know their fate next Monday after a jury deliberates on a verdict on the charge levelled against them for shooting and killing Abdool Fazal Saheed during a robbery at Freeman Street, East La Penitence just over four years ago.
The jointly-charged duo has been on trial before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow who is set to sum up the case on November 29th, before handing it over to the 12-member panel who will retire to deliberate a verdict.
Both the prosecution and defence presented closing addresses yesterday—each side making their respective advancements as to why the accused should and should not be found guilty.
The young men are accused of murdering Saheed in the wee hours of September 24th, 2017 at Lot 194 Freeman Street in the furtherance of a robbery.
They professed their innocence in unsworn statements, at the close of the prosecution’s case last Friday.
Dos Santos refuted claims by investigators of ever confessing to the crime.
“I am innocent of this crime,” he told the court.
Howard’s story was the same. “I don’t know anything that they [the police] are speaking about,” he said.
The two have contended that they had nothing to do with the crime, know nothing about it and complained of having been placed on a botched identification parade which the investigators organized.
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.
