DPP reopens political activist Crum-Ewing’s murder case

Last Updated on Friday, 17 March 2017, 21:11 by Denis Chabrol

Six months after a man accused of the shooting death of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Hack on Friday announced that she has ordered that the file be re-opened.

The murder charge against Regan “Grey Boy” Rodrigues was on September 14, 2016 discharged by City Magistrate Judy Latchman because there was insufficient evidence for him to be trialed by a High Court judge and jury.

The DPP’s Chambers said Thursday that in keeping with Guyana’s Criminal Law Offences Act, the case of the Police vs Regan Rodrigues has bee sent back to Magistrate Latchman “for reopening.”

“The sole purpose of this remit is to take further evidence from police witnesses and to rule on the voluntariness of all oral statements of the accused,” the DPP’s Chambers said in a statement.

The matter will be prosecuted by Special Prosecutor, Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes who had been among the first on the scene at Diamond, East Bank Demerara on March 10, 2015,

Crum-Ewing was gunned down while on a megaphone urging residents to go out and vote for the A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition in the May, 2015 polls.

Rodrigues had won a case of illegal gun possession before he the murder charge against him had been discharged. At that time, police had claimed that ballistic tests on a hand gun found in his possession allegedly proved that it was the same weapon that was used to kill Crum-Ewing.