Jury finds Mahaica man guilty of murdering neighbour

50-year-old Foster Gravesande, who was on trial for the April 09, 2017 murder of his neighbour, was on Thursday found guilty of the crime by a 12-member jury. The murder convict, who was arraigned before Justice Navindra Singh, was further remanded to prison until January 07, 2020, when he will be sentenced.

The murder convict was represented by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd.

Gravesande of Jonestown, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge when he appeared virtually at the High Court in Georgetown. In the end, he was found guilty of murdering his 49-year-old neighbour, Courtney Porter, a father of three.

During his trial, several witnesses testified on behalf of the Prosecution led by State Counsel Teriq Mohammed. One of them was Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh who gave Porter’s cause of death as brain haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma.

It was previously reported Gravesande had accused Porter of pulling his wife’s clothing. As such, the two men were involved in a fight during which Gravesande dealt Porter several blows to the head with a piece of wood.

Following the attack, Porter was hospitalized and discharged. Police had initially charged Gravesande with attempt to commit murder, but after Porter died, the charge against him was upgraded to murder.