Magistrate oversteps his bounds

– grants, overturns bail for murder accused

Magistrate Allan Wilson exceeded his authority and granted bail to a murder accused in the Matthew’s Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Murder Accused: Neville Chandrawattie

However, no sooner had he set bail at $750,000 than Prosecutor Inspector Stephen Telford successfully sought the intervention of Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry and the Director of Public Prosecutions. They both ordered that Wilson’s decision be ignored since a Magistrate has no authority to grant bail to a murder accused. A bailor was reportedly armed with the hefty sum to bail Chandrawattie. Instances of murder accused being released on bail are rare and are only allowed at a Judge’s discretion. Neville Chandrawattie also called Sunil, made headlines in November, 2013 after he was named the “mastermind” who skillfully orchestrated a $93M gold heist in Port Kaituma from the El Dorado Gold Trading Company where he worked for years. After 13 months as a remand prisoner on a murder charge, Chandrawattie, a 30-year-old man accused of shooting his co-worker to death during a robbery committed on his employer, appeared in the Magistrate’s court on Wednesday. After facing several charges in relation to that robbery, Chandrawattie was taken before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry in December 24, 2013, charged with killing Darran Chanmangra at Port Kaituma on Saturday, April 21, 2007. The court was, at that stage, told that the 30-year-old accused who resides at Lot 33 Sparta, Essequibo, planned a robbery during the course of which, Chanmangra was shot and killed. The persons who allegedly committed the robbery had reportedly escaped. The two, Clairmont Williams and Sherwin ‘One Eye’ Henry, were subsequently arrested and charged. On November 8, 2013, the said El Dorado Gold Trading Company was robbed once again, but the investigations conducted this time around uncovered some new details. The Prosecution submitted that while ‘Sunil’ was held for the 2013 robbery, he owned up to planning the 2007 robbery. As a result the murder charge was instituted against him. At the end of the 2013 hearing, the Chief Magistrate remanded Chandrawattie and transferred the matter to be heard before Magistrate Wilson at the Matthews’ Ridge Magistrate’s Court. The first date the matter was slated to be heard before Magistrate Wilson was February 3, 2014. As Chandrawattie’s case was called again on Wednesday, last, Police Inspector Stephen Telford stood on behalf of the Prosecutor. The special Prosecutor attached to the case, Attorney-at-Law Glen Hanoman had asked to be excused since he had another matter in the Georgetown High Court. It was here that Magistrate Wilson blundered. Chandrawattie is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Compton Richardson. Also present in court were Amirullah Kudratulla, Anil Dhiram and Kenneth Garraway, the three men Chandrawattie had implicated in the 2013 robbery. They are charged with simple larceny. Though they were previously released on bail, the court on Wednesday further reduced their bail amounts. Last November, the Judicial Service Commission took a decision to suspend Magistrate Alex Moore, as they investigate allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by an East Coast Demerara businesswoman. The decision to suspend the Magistrate came as no real surprise to many, since he had been involved in a number of controversial rulings. Moore, who has been dispensing a number of cases at the busy Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, featured prominently in the news when he handed down an unprecedented suspended five year sentence to a man who pleaded guilty to trafficking in more than 60 kilograms of cocaine worth $300M. The man, Leonard Bacchus was also given a suspended sentence of two years for being in unlawful possession of 125 – 12-gauge cartridges and 115 – .32 rounds of ammunition, which also stemmed from the raid on his Block 20 Enmore/Haslington Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara home on August 16, 2001. The Director of Public Prosecutions has since appealed Magistrate Moore’s sentence, since there is no provision in the laws of Guyana for non-custodial sentence for persons found guilty of drug trafficking. The Magistrate reportedly defended his decision, by pointing to the length of time and resources the defendant expended on the case which took three years to be completed. However, his decision did not go down well with President of the Guyana Bar Association Ronald Burch-Smith, who described it as highly unusual. Moore’s suspension is indefinite. He will be afforded a hearing before the Judicial Service Commission.