Accused man pleads guilty to manslaughter

ZANNA Andrews, jointly charged with Mookash Chandardath, for the double murder of an elderly couple, yesterday during the latest hearing of the double-murder trial at the San Fernando Assizes, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. His plea was accepted by the State. Andrew’s manslaughter plea came when the double murder trial was well underway before Justice Herbert Volney and a 12-member mixed jury. Andrews, 26, admitted to causing the death of pensioner Selwyn Grant, whose decomposed body was found on September 16, 1999, under a water-tank at his Syne Village, Penal, home.  

Andrews however, denied killing Grant’s common-law wife Ursula Innis, whose decapitated body was discovered in a bathtub, in the home she shared with Grant, on the same day Grant’s body was found. Andrews was jointly charged with Chandardath, 35, for the murders. The two accused went on trial before Justice Herbert Volney in the San Fernando High Court on September 18, and the 12-member jury with two alternates had heard some seven days of evidence. State prosecutor Joan Honore-Paul is leading the State’s case. Last week Honore-Paul called witness Sgt Celestine Phillip, who testified that Andrews confessed to police that he assisted in tying up Grant and Innis. 

At yesterday’s start of proceedings, Andrew’s defence attorney Ian Gray, asked that the indictment be re-read to his client. As Andrews pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter of Grant, Honore-Paul told Justice Volney that a case had not been made out against Andrews for Innis’ death, and she was accepting the not-guilty plea to the Innis murder. Justice Volney then instructed the foreman of the jury to return the verdicts according to State’s acceptance of the pleas. The judge remanded Andrews into custody and postponed his sentencing on a date yet to be fixed. After Andrews was taken away by court police, Chandardath’s trial continued. Chandardath’s case is expected to continue today.