20-year old father of one charged with murder of Timehri mechanic

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 June 2016, 20:52 by Denis Chabrol

Twenty-year-old Rayon Jones was on Tuesday remanded to prison by City Magistrate, Judy Latchman for his alleged murder of 23-year old Timehri mechanic, Puranand ‘Andrew’ Baljit which occurred last week Thursday.

Jones, of  212 Fourth Avenue Bartica was not required to plea to the indictable charge which states that on Thursday, June 9, 2016 at Madewini, Timehri East Bank Demerara he murdered Baljit during the course or furtherance of a burglary.

The defendant was represented by Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat who requested that the preliminary inquiry of murder be done by paper committal to save judicial time.

The matter, which was transferred to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, was adjourned until July 5, 2016.

Jones, a father of one had appeared before the Bartica Magistrates Court during his teens for several matters of burglary.

On Saturday evening, the accused was apprehended by ranks of the Guyana Police Force on the seawall during an identification parade. Jones was reportedly lured by his girlfriend whom the police had taken into custody for questioning the day before.

On Thursday last, Baljit was found murdered in his bedroom at his 57 Timehri Public Road, East Bank Demerara house. Police had treated the incident as a robbery-murder.Investigators discovered the dead man with several stab wounds about his body, mainly to the chest and shoulder.

A 12-inch knife was also found on the room’s window ledge, but the police had said that that was not the weapon used to carry out the gruesome act.In addition to that, detectives on Friday found a pink mobile phone at the murder scene.

The now dead man’s father, HarichandBaljit, told investigators that he heard screams emerging from his son’s room on Thursday evening. He revealed that he immediately rushed to the boy’s bedroom door but it was locked. He then decided to climb through his son’s bedroom window and discovered the young man lying in a pool of blood.

Andrew was then taken to the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.