One freed, another still before the court over school boy’s murder

L-R: Freed: Andy Peters; Murdered: Brian Charles Yearwood: Murder accused: Shannon Cox

Andy Peters, one of the two men charged with the April 2017 murder of a schoolboy, was freed on Monday after Demerara High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall upheld a no-case submission made on his behalf by his lawyer.

As such, the judge directed the jury to return to a formal not guilty verdict. Shannon Cox, the other accused, was, however, called on to lead a defence after the judge overruled the no-case submission made on his behalf by counsel.

Cox, 23, and Peters, 20, had pleaded not guilty to the charge which alleged that on April 29, 2017, in the county of Demerara, they murdered 17-year-old Brian Charles Yearwood of Public Road Grove, East Bank Demerara.

Meanwhile, Cox, in leading his defence, opted to give an unsworn statement in which he denied killing the teenager.  A crying Cox told the judge: “I didn’t have no problem with no one. I don’t know the person who dead. Is when I go at the station they show me a picture of him [Yearwood] when the Police lock me up…. I cooperate with them [Police] because I know me ain’t do nothing ma’am…”

Peters was represented by Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat, while Cox is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Madan Kissoon. Senior State Counsel Lisa Cave is leading the case for the prosecution.

Yearwood, a former student of the Covent Garden Secondary School was stabbed in the chest while attending a concert in the Covent Garden Nursery School compound. It was reported that the stabbing stemmed from an old grievance between the trio.

Peters and Cox were initially charged with the teen’s murder in May 2017 and remanded to prison. Following a preliminary inquiry, they were committed to stand trial for the capital offence at the High Court.