“Smallie” found not guilty of 2007 double murder

Fourteen years after he allegedly shot and killed two men, Mark Royden Williams was on Thursday acquitted of the crime when a jury returned not guilty verdicts. Williams was accused of the December 16, 2007 murders of 35-year-old Rajesh Singh and 25-year-old Fazil Hakim.

The jurors returned their verdicts at around 16:25h. Williams was found not guilty on both counts.

The men were killed at Agriculture Road, Triumph, East Coast Demerara. According to reports, Singh of Martyr’s Ville, East Coast Demerara, and Hakim of Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, were shot and killed while they were drinking liquor at a bar.

Based on reports, on the day in question, three gunmen, who were clad in military fatigues invaded the shop and began shooting indiscriminately.

In the end, Hakim and Singh laid motionless in a pool of blood. They were subsequently rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Their cause of death was given and shock and haemorrhage due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Throughout the trial, Williams was represented by Attorneys-at-law Nigel Hughes and Ronald Daniels, while the case for the prosecution was presented by State Counsel Lisa Cave and State Counsel Tyra Bakker. This trial was conducted before Justice Sandil Kissoon at the High Court in Demerara

Another man, Michael Caesar called “Capone” was in 2020 sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in relation to the killing of Singh and Hakim.

In 2017, Williams and another man were sentenced to death by hanging after they were found guilty of murdering 12 persons including three police ranks during the 2008 Bartica massacre.  The men have appealed their conviction and sentence.