Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Mur­der and gang-re­lat­ed charges against sev­en men and a woman have been dis­missed over de­lays in pros­e­cut­ing the case. 

In a de­ci­sion de­liv­ered on Thurs­day, High Court Mas­ter Mar­garet Sookraj-Goswa­mi agreed to dis­miss the charges against Dar­ryl Bis­soon, Wen­rick King, Paul Go­sine, Richard James, Syd­ney Viaru­el, Se­an­del Davy, Shelly Ann Ali and Eni­boku Ak­i­na. 

The group was charged in re­la­tion to the mur­der of 38-year-old Gar­vey Cam­po in Jan­u­ary 2019. 

Po­lice of­fi­cers re­spond­ed to a re­port of a shoot­ing at Windy Hill, Arou­ca, and found a wound­ed Cam­po in a wood­en house. 

He was tak­en for med­ical treat­ment but was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival at hos­pi­tal. 

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­port­ed­ly found spent shells with mark­ings as­so­ci­at­ed with the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) on the scene. 

King, of Rose Dri­ve, Ever­green, Cara­po, was charged with mur­der, us­ing a firearm in the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty, and us­ing am­mu­ni­tion in the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

Davy, of Rose Dri­ve, Ever­green, Cara­po, was charged with mur­der and know­ing­ly pro­vid­ing sup­port to a gang leader in the fur­ther­ance of the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

Viaru­el, of Windy Hill, Arou­ca, was charged with mur­der, con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der, and know­ing­ly pro­vid­ing sup­port to a gang leader in the fur­ther­ance of the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

Bis­soon was charged with mur­der, con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der and be­ing a gang leader. 

Go­sein was charged with con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der, pos­ses­sion of a firearm which he rea­son­ably knew would be used in the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty and pos­ses­sion of 23 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion which he rea­son­ably knew would be used in the com­mis­sion of a gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

James was charged with mur­der and pos­ses­sion of a firearm, while Ali and Ak­i­na were charged with sup­port­ing a gang. 

Their case was ad­journed sev­er­al times due to pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al de­lays be­fore be­ing set for a suf­fi­cien­cy hear­ing be­fore Mas­ter Sookraj-Goswa­mi this week. 

Days be­fore the hear­ing, pros­e­cu­tors ap­plied for an ex­ten­sion to file out­stand­ing wit­ness state­ments and the in­dict­ment against the group.

The fil­ings were not com­plet­ed when the case came up for hear­ing yes­ter­day. 

The group’s lawyers ob­ject­ed to a fur­ther ex­ten­sion as they not­ed that four pre­vi­ous ex­ten­sions had not been com­plied with and there was not a suf­fi­cient rea­son to grant an­oth­er.  

Mas­ter Sookraj-Goswa­mi agreed and dis­charged the mem­bers of the group, some of whom were on bail and oth­ers who were in prison for un­re­lat­ed crimes. 

The group was rep­re­sent­ed by pub­lic de­fend­ers Shane Pa­tience, Ayan­na Norville-Mod­este, Shaun Mor­ris, Nicholas Ram­per­sads­ingh, Stephen Wil­son, Jeron Paul and at­tor­neys Ian Brooks, and Ki­ran Pan­day. 

The case was pros­e­cut­ed by An­ju Bho­la.