‘Fine Man’ accomplice walks free from 33 murders
…DPP defends action as lawful practice
… Nigel Hughes wants explanation
Director of Public Prosecutions (PPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack and Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes, continue to trade barbs over the withdrawal of charges against a man who confessed to being an accomplice of Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins during a murderous crime spree which claimed the lives of 33 persons, namely those killed at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek.
Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes
Hack this past week, confirmed that the DPP Chambers did not enter into any formal plea bargaining agreement with the man who had the charges against him dropped 10 days before the trial and instead was used as a prosecution witness.
Hughes during an Alliance for Change (AFC) press conference yesterday said that it is for the public to judge the statements made by the DPP.
Hack, on Tuesday, in a missive to the media, stated that “based on the facts from the investigations, Dwane Williams was an accomplice…It is an old common law practice to allow an accomplice to an offence to testify for the prosecution…It has always been done in the criminal law practice, and continues to be done…It is a lawful practice with which all criminal law practitioners are quite familiar.
Hughes yesterday reminded that 10 days before Williams’s trial, the charges were dropped by the DPP with no reasons being proffered.
He said that at least with a Plea Bargaining Agreement, Williams would have received a reduced sentence for some other offence committed.
In his testimony during the trial, Williams told the court, “Me and Fine Man were tight…I was with him in Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek.”
Eleven persons were massacred in Lusignan, including children, another 12 were slaughtered in Bartica and another 10 met the same fate at Lindo Creek. The bodies from the Lindo Creek massacre were burnt.
In the court testimony, Williams conceded that 33 persons were killed, “when I was with Fine Man and I am not facing a single charge.”
He told the court that while he had no special role in the gang that committed the murders, he did accompany Fine Man and the gang as they went out on their rampage.
DPP, Shalimar Hack
The public verbal back forth between Hughes and the DPP was sparked by a response he made to the People’s Progressive Party and the Guyana Chronicle regarding relating the issue of his “relationship with the Foreman of the jury in the Lusignan murder trial.”
Hughes took note of the fact that the ruling party made particular appeal to the victims of the Lusignan massacre, contending that he was responsible for the release and discharge of those persons who were responsible for the mass murders.
According to Hughes, “the people of Lusignan and Guyana appear not to have been made aware that the person who admitted and confessed to being with Fine Man and participating in the Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek massacres, Mr. Dwane Wiliams, was not and will not be prosecuted by the State for any of these 33 murders he participated in.”
Hughes contended that he was granted a free pass by the State for killing not only the people of Lusiganan but those in Bartica and Lindo Creek.
According to Hughes, the young man was the State’s sole eye witness who was jointly charged for the Lusignan murders but a mere week before the commencement of the trial the charges of murder against him, were mysteriously dropped by the State and he was released.
“Perhaps the people of Lusignan may wish to inquire of the Attorney General (Anil Nandlall) and the DPP (Shalimar Hack), why the State, which is responsible for protecting and serving them, would let a self confessed murderer of 33 citizens go free without a single charge…No other person in the history of this country has enjoyed such a pardon.”
Rondell ‘Fineman’Rawlins
The DPP in her response to Hughes, pointed to the original charge, but did not give a specific reason as to why those charges were dropped.
