A magistrate yesterday ruled that there is sufficient evidence for Sophia resident Martin Blair to be committed to stand trial in the High Court for the murder of his sister’s boyfriend.
Blair, a 23-year-old mason, of Lot 578 Seventh Street, ‘D’ Field, Sophia, was committed to stand trial for the murder of Daniel Boutrin. At the conclusion of the preliminary inquiry into the charge against him at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool ruled that there was sufficient evidence to commit him to stand trial at the next practicable sitting of the criminal assizes for the offence of murder.
The charge against Blair is that on March 15, at ‘D’ Field, Sophia, he murdered Boutrin.
A police report on the fatal altercation stated that on March 15, the two got into an argument over a bike, which Boutrin borrowed last year and subsequently lost. The Police Prosecutor’s facts state that the two men lived at the ‘D’ Field address and that Boutrin was the boyfriend of Blair’s sister. The police say Blair started to verbally abuse his parents about the bicycle. Blair and his father had a scuffle and at the time he had a knife in his hand. His father reportedly tried to disarm him but he managed to run onto the road. After he ran onto the road, he allegedly turned his attention to Boutrin. He made allegations against Boutrin and the argument escalated and the accused allegedly armed himself with a cutlass while Boutrin armed himself with a knife.
Police said the suspect’s parents intervened and asked Boutrin to leave. As he was about to enter a taxi, he was then confronted by the suspect, who allegedly stabbed him several times.
Boutrin was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he died two days later. The police then issued a wanted bulletin for Blair. Blair, accompanied by a lawyer, subsequently turned himself in.
