Kurt Erskine is likely to know his fate on Thursday after a jury deliberates on the case against him for the 2015 murder of Regent Multiplex Mall owner, Ganesh Ramlall called Boyo, who the court has heard was shot eight times.
The charge against Erskine, to which he has professed his innocence, alleges that on July 5th, 2015, in the company of others, he murdered Ramlall during a robbery at the man’s La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara home.
Leading his defence yesterday, Erskine said that he was innocent of the charge levelled against him.
While he admitted being at the scene to rob the now dead man, Erskine’s story through his attorney Lyndon Amsterdam, is that he withdrew from the plan before the man was shot and killed by an accomplice, and is contending on that basis that he is not guilty of murder.
In her address to the jury, however, attorney Konyo Sandiford who is prosecuting the matter, asked them to find, from Erskine’s conduct, that he had not effectively withdrawn, and remains liable as a participant in the joint enterprise in which Ramlall was killed during the robbery.
She argued that in accordance with the murder-felony rule, Erskine remains culpable for the murder as his accomplices, though he also sought to contend that it was not he who had pulled the trigger.
Following addresses from both sides yesterday, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall who is presiding over the matter, announced that she will sum up the case on Thursday and hand it over to the jury to deliberate on a verdict.
The trial is being heard at the High Court in Demerara.
Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh has testified that Ramlall had been shot a total of eight times and died from related injuries.
Meanwhile, in a tearful recount of the events of that fateful night, the man’s widow, Chitrakha Ramlall had told the court that she had just opened the door for her husband after he arrived home, when she was alerted to loud explosions.
The wife had previously told the court that as her husband did on any other night, he called and told her that he was on his way home and after coming out of bed, she proceeded to the living room where she waited for him.
She recalled that after his arrival sometime after midnight, he parked his vehicle and she opened the door to let him in the house and then proceeded to the upper flat of their home.
No sooner had she gotten upstairs, Ramlall said she heard “bullet” and her husband shouting “Thief! Thief!”
She said she immediately called out to neighbours who went to her assistance.
In between sobs, the woman had said that after rushing back downstairs she saw her husband lying face-down on the ground and stripped of his gold and diamond jewellery.
One person connected to the killing— Faizal Bacchus—who had pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, was last week released from prison after being credited for time served.
With that credit and other deductions from an 18-year sentence, Bacchus was on Tuesday last released from prison.
At a sentencing hearing the day before, Justice Morris-Ramlall imposed a sentence of 18 years on the former taxi driver, but made a number of deductions, which included among other things, for his early plea.
Following the various deductions, the final remaining sentence of 6 ½ years was also discounted, since the Judge ordered that credit be given for the period the offender had spent on remand awaiting trial.
In the circumstances, he has been released from prison.
