Another accused in moneychanger’s murder found not guilty

Five days after his co-accused was acquitted, 30-year-old George Hope, the number two accused in the murder of Water Street, Georgetown moneychanger Sean Nurse, was on Monday, found not guilty of the crime by a jury at the High Court in Demerara.

Hope of Freeman Street, East La Penitence, Georgetown had been accused of murdering  Sean Nurse called “Fabulous”, during the course or furtherance of a robbery that occurred on February 4, 2018, in the county of Demerara. He had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Before the jurors retired to deliberate on Monday, trial Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall had directed them to consider a verdict for the capital offence of murder and the lesser count of manslaughter.

The jury returned not-guilty verdicts in relation to both counts.

Hope was represented by lawyers of the law firm, Hughes, Fields, and Stoby led by Nigel Hughes, while Attorneys-at-Law Marisa Edwards, Tanesha Saigon, Abiola Lowe, and Delon Fraser were the prosecutors.

Last Wednesday, 30-year-old Kerwin Dos Santos, also of Freeman Street, East La Penitence, Hope’s co-accused was freed after trial Judge Morris-Ramlall upheld a no-case submission made on his behalf by Attorney-at-Law Hughes.

As such, the Judge directed the mixed 12-member jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of Dos Santos who was subsequently discharged and informed that he was free to go.

The prosecutors have given the court oral notice of the State’s intention to appeal Dos Santos’s and Hope’s acquittal.

Also, last Wednesday, Hope, was called upon to lead a defence after the trial Judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence against him and he elected to give unsworn testimony.

In his testimony, he told the court that he has an alibi.

He said that he was at home with his then six-month-old son at the time Nurse was shot and killed, so there is no way he could have committed the crime.

According to reports, Nurse, 47, a father of three, of the South Ruimveldt Shopping Plaza, Georgetown was shot once in the face, just under the left eye.

Police Headquarters had reported that Nurse was seated on a chair at the corner of America Street and Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown when a gun-toting man demanded that he hand over his money, including local and foreign currency.

And when he resisted, the gunman shot Nurse in the face before making good his escape, north on Avenue of the Republic and then east into Charlotte Street, Georgetown. The perpetrator was identified as a man wearing a hoodie and a pair of brown trousers.

While examining the crime scene, Police detectives recovered a 9mm spent shell. Hope and Dos Santos were initially charged with Nurse’s murder back in 2018; and following an appearance before a Magistrate, they were remanded to prison.

After finding that a prima facie case had been made against them at the end of a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) the following year, the Magistrate committed both of them to stand trial for the capital offence by a jury before a Judge at the Demerara Criminal Assizes.

All three of the accused in Nurse’s murder have now been freed.

In 2019, the murder charge was discharged against Kacey Heyligar after a city magistrate, at the end of a PI, found that there was insufficient evidence against him for him to be tried in the High Court.