Two St Joseph men guilty of 2010 murder

TWO Maracas/St Joseph men have been found guilty of killing 28-year-old labourer Quincy De Four more than a decade ago.

De Four was shot in the groin and died of blood loss from a single shot which pierced his right thigh and scrotal sac and split his right femoral artery – the main blood supply to the thigh and leg.

After a judge-only virtual trial before Justice Gail Gonzales, the two, Shaka Masamba St Prix and Mickel Sumrah, both of Maracas/St Joseph, were found guilty on Wednesday of De Four’s murder by virtue of the felony murder rule, which applies when someone commits a certain kind of crime and someone dies in the course of it.

Both men are expected to be sentenced later this month.

De Four and five others were gambling in a yard at Guaratta Hill, Maracas/St Joseph, at about 1.15 am on April 24, 2010, when St Prix and Sumrah tried to rob them with a firearm and cutlass.

The prosecution’s case was that Sumrah began beating one of the gamblers with the cutlass while St Prix stood pointing the gun at De Four, then shot him.

De Four ran a short distance but fell into a drain. He was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, where he was pronounced dead.

Sumrah was arrested on October 25, 2010, and charged with De Four’s murder. De Prix was arrested and charged two years later by Sgt Rene Katwaroo of the Tunapuna CID.

The state’s case was based on oral statements by Sumrah in which he confessed to the police, as well as eyewitness accounts.

At the trial, the state was allowed to use the statements and depositions of its main witnesses after they filed what is known as a “fear” application, on the basis that they were afraid to come forward to testify.

One of the accused denied the crime, and the other relied on an alibi.

Sumrah was represented by attorney Odai Ramischand and Arif Rahaman. St Prix was represented by attorneys Robert Vincent Charles and Danielle Rampersad.

State attorneys Stacy Laloo-Chung and Kezia Gray-Birkette prosecuted.