Murder accused ‘Two Colours’ had refused plea bargain- DPP

The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has responded to an article in another section of the media in which murder accused Lennox Wayne is claiming that his constitutional right to a fair trial within a reasonable time has been infringed due to the delay in his retrial.

In a statement issued Thursday, the DPP Chambers said that on several occasions, Wayne, called, ‘Two Colours’,  indicated to the State that he wished to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, the last being in November 2020. The statement added that on each occasion, the State commenced preparations for taking his plea, but he, however, changed his mind, which he is entitled to do.

“The State was willing to accept his guilty plea to the lesser offence of Manslaughter,” the DPP Chambers noted.

Wayne and Melroy Doris are jointly charged with the July 10, 2014 murder of Ashmini Harriram, the 19-year-old cosmetologist who was shot dead just after she disembarked a minibus at Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara. Following a Preliminary Inquiry, the men who were charged in 2014, were committed to stand trial in 2015 at the Demerara Criminal Assizes.

Their trial commenced in April 2017 and ended a few weeks after in a hung jury. As such, the Trial Judge further remanded them to prison pending a retrial at the next practicable session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes.  However, almost four years later, the men have not been brought before a judge and jury for their retrial to commence.

Wayne has now filed a constitutional motion requesting a permanent stay of the murder charge against him. The murder accused also wants to be admitted to bail pending the hearing of the motion; damages in excess of $100,000 for the breach of his fundamental right of a fair trial within a reasonable time as guaranteed under Article 144 of the Constitution of Guyana.

The murder accused is also seeking interests, costs, and such further or other orders the court finds just.