Stay away from trouble, jail not nice

After being freed of a murder charge yesterday, Couva resident Andre Anderson Francois made a plea to the “ghetto youths and gangsters” to “stay away from trouble, because jail is not a nice place.”

Francois, 19, who was charged with stabbing another Couva man, Ricky Ricardo Mohammed to death following a birthday party in September, 2000, is the seventh person to be freed of murder for the month of January, while two brothers were freed of manslaughter. The jury retired around 2.10 pm yesterday following a four-hour summation by Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court and returned about 1 ? hours later with the not guilty verdict. After hearing the verdict, family members and friends broke down in tears, while the victim’s common-law wife, Kamilla Ramiah, sat in silence. The evidence presented by State attorney Nadia James was that an altercation broke out between two men at Mohammed’s 31st birthday party at his Frederick Settlement Caroni home on September 17, 2000.

Following the altercation, Francois and two others were asked to leave the party. They allegedly returned and started cursing and carrying on. Mohammed and another guest called Doodie went up the road to speak to the men and, according to the State’s evidence, that was when Francois ran up to Mohammed, whipped out a knife from his pants and stabbed Mohammed in his chest. Mohammed was rushed to the Mt Hope Medical Sciences Complex, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. In his defence Francois stated that Mohammed was the one who had approached him with the knife, that they struggled and fell and that he was attacked by Mohammed’s friends who hit and kicked him while he was on the ground. He also stated that when he got away from the scene, he ran to his cousin’s home.

When the matter resumed yesterday, Justice Holdip gave the jurors direction on the law regarding the issues of provocation, self defence and accident in order to assist the members of the jury when deliberating. Francois was represented by attorneys Fitzgerald Hinds and Rudyard Davidson, while the State was represented by Nadia James and Sati Maragh-Lalla. The other six men freed of murder for 2004 are Nigel “Yardy” Matthews, Martin Layne and Grafton “Pecos” Sorzano who were freed on Tuesday of murdering Diego Martin resident Mervyn Wright outside the Ultra Care Pharmacy in Diego Martin on June 3, 2000. A fourth person, Kerry Joseph, had been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony in the trial. Wright was shot and killed during a struggle with Joseph. Joseph had earlier approached Wright and attempted to grab his chain off his neck. Another trio, Nizam Christian, 22 and Cordell John, 26, of Maniquite, East Dry River, and Jason Augustine, 22, of Fatima Trace, Upper Laventille Road, Laventille, were freed on January 15 for the murder of Llewellyn Bovell.