Diamond man charged with 41st murder of 2017

A 33-year-old electrician from Diamond has been charged with the Christmas Eve shooting and subsequent death of Andel Muckette and the wounding of his girlfriend Jesjil Letteen.

Berisford Williams of Diamond was brought before the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court this Tuesday, charged that on December 24, with malice aforethought causing the death of Andel Muckette of Diamond. He is also charged with the malicious wounding of Muckette’s girlfriend, Jesjil Letteen, 33 years, also of Diamond, to which charge he pleaded not guilty.

Muckette had become the country’s 41st homicide for 2017, when he died on Christmas Day, succumbing to gunshot wounds to his head and left leg that he had received the night before. Muckette is said to have been shot at around 7 p.m. at Diamond.

The charge of murder placed against the defendant is an indictable offence and therefore magistrate Bertie Pompey transferred and adjourned the matter to the Serious Offences Court for January 8, when a decision will be made on the start of the Preliminary Inquiry.

Lawyer for the defence Grant Connell then rose to inform the prosecution that they wished to seek a paper committal instead of a Preliminary Inquiry, dubbing the inquiry as a “waste of time.”

If the case goes through the route of a paper committal, then the judge will read the brief provided and decide based solely on this evidence whether there is enough for the case to be heard in the High Court.

However, the prosecution then said that since investigations were ongoing, they may not yet be prepared to comply with that request.

In response, Connell highlighted this as disturbing, saying that a man is being remanded in custody even though investigations were incomplete.

“Sick,” he commented.

The magistrate stated that the discussion was out of his jurisdiction and the matter will still be heard to decide the next step at the Serious Offences Court on January 8.

Both victims in the case, Letteen and Muckette, came to national attention late last year, when Letteen made a public declaration through the media of the extent of her problems of abuse at the hands of Muckette, and especially an incident in which he had beaten her with a cutlass while she held a two-year-old in her arms, causing wounds to her head.

However, later that month, on September 25, in a shocking reversal, Letteen claimed she had made a mistake in reporting her lover, forcing magistrate Rickie Burnette of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to dismiss the case against Muckette.(KR)