Twenty-four-year-old Shannon Cox now awaits sentencing after being found guilty of the 2017 unlawful killing of schoolboy, Brian Charles Yearwood, who was stabbed while attending a school concert.
Following hours of deliberations, the jury yesterday returned a unanimous verdict, finding the young man not guilty of the capital offence on which he was indicted, but guilty on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
He repeatedly shook his head in seeming disbelief after hearing the foreman announce the verdict.
Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall has, however, deferred sentencing to March 10th for a probation report.
On Tuesday, Cox’s former co-accused, Andy Peters, 21, was freed after the judge upheld a no-case submission in his favour.
The charge against the convict is that he unlawfully killed Yearwood on April 29th, 2017 at Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara.
Cox was represented by defence attorney Madan Kissoon.
The state’s case was led by prosecutor Lisa Cave.
The trial was heard at the High Court in Demerara.
Yearwood, a student of Covent Garden Secondary School and formerly of Lot 69 Public Road, Grove, East Bank Demerara, was stabbed once in his chest while attending a school concert at the Covent Garden Nursery School compound.
Police had said that from all indications the stabbing stemmed from an old grievance between the youngsters.
Yearwood, 16, was discovered lying on the ground by an off-duty police constable and was rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Hospital, where he later succumbed.
