By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
Mohamed Kamara alias “de game” and Samuel Koroma have been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment each by Justice John Bosco Alieu, after finding them guilty by a 12 Man juror on a one-count indictment of Murder.
State prosecutor A.Kargbo in her closing address to the jurors said that the burden and standard of proof of guilt against the accused persons rest on the prosecution. She said the prosecution in proving its case called 5 witnesses to which Chief Medical forensic Pathologist Dr Simeon Owizz Koroma testified of the autopsy and cause of death of the deceased person.
It is alleged that both accused persons are indicted on a one count charge of Murder, as the particulars of the offence reads that Mohamed Kamara alias “de game ” and Samuel Koroma on the 5th May 2019 at Freetown in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone murdered Mohamed Bah.
Defence counsel Zackariah Kanu and Zackariah Deinkeh representing both accused persons also addressed members of the Jury on the indictment of both accused persons of murder alleged by the state.
Justice John Bosco Alieu in his summoning up address to the jurors narrated briefly the testimonies of the witnesses that were called upon.
He said according to PW5 Fatmata Squire in her testimony said she and the accused persons lived together in the same neighbourhood before the incident.
In her testimony read by the Judge, she said the deceased fondly called her mother and recalled on the 5th of May 2019 in the evening hours she stood in front of her Kiosk eating mango when the deceased begged her for some but she declined.
She said the deceased told him that the room that their father was making has now been turned into a brothel with different women being seen in and out of the room.
She went on that as the deceased was speaking to her, the first accused knocked the deceased hard on his head, of which she said the deceased got angry and picked up a stone which he wanted to pelt at the accused person but that she stopped the deceased from doing so and a little fracas escalated between them which she intervened on.
Further, the judge said according to this witness the second accused person then grabbed the deceased by the chest which she said she yelled at him to let go off but the second refused to heed this warning and dragged the deceased behind the makeshift structure.
According to this witness, she said she was interrupted by a call from a customer who had some misunderstanding with her daughter and left the scene to settle the dispute, upon her return she said she saw the 2nd accused person behind the deceased and that the deceased had blood all over his chest, she also said she tried enquiring from the deceased as to what happened but that the deceased was shouting “this na police case”.
Justice John Bosco Alieu informed the court of PW5 testimony that at the sight of the incident she started shouting as the deceased approached the makeshift structure, the first accused person who was standing by the door of the makeshift structure used an object and stabbed the deceased on the neck, the deceased twisted and turned and dropped to the ground with blood oozing from his neck.
In conclusion to her testimony, the judge said the prosecution witness alerted her husband and neighbours of the crime, and that the husband arrested the first accused person but was unable to arrest the 2nd accused person who ran away but was later arrested at the back of the makeshift structure and was arrested.
Justice John Bosco Alieu also read the testimony of Chief Medical Pathologist Dr Simeon Owizz Koroma that he performed an autopsy on the body of Mohamed Bah deceased in the presence of the investigating officer and scene of crime officer (SOCO) at the time of this autopsy there were no relatives present.
Justice John Bosco Alieu said according to the Pathologist in his testimony the accused died of acute hemorrhagic shock due to a stab wound of the neck’s right Anterolateral aspect, that the death of the deceased was unnatural, that an object was used in stabbing the deceased causing him the wound.
Justice John Bosco Alieu on the return of the jurors and verdict of the jurors cautioned accused persons of their actions and their implications.
Both accused persons were sentenced to 30 years each on the count of Murder by Justice John Bosco Alieu.