By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
Sheriff Kamara on Friday 22nd July was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Augustine Kailey Musa of the high court no.2 in Freetown on one count indictment of Murder.
The particulars of offences state that the accused Sheriff Kamara on the 5th February 2021 at Freetown in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone, murdered Mariama Kongaima.
Closing address made by Defense Counsel for the accused person C. Tucker Esq from Legal Aid Board said upon the accused first arraignment before the court he pleaded not guilty to the offence and that the burden of proof of the offence rests on the Prosecution to prove the accused guilty as charged of the crime beyond all reasonable doubts and that the Prosecution called four witnesses in pricing its case in which one was a factual witness.
She continued further that the Prosecution closed its case after Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma a medical officer testified and that the accused was given options to choose whether he relied on his statements made to the police or to testify on oath which the accused did.
She said the accused testified that the deceased was his traditional wife and that the events of things happened when he received information that his mother was critically sick at the Machama Village.
She went on that the accused said it was the deceased that advised him to go and that she will go along with the deceased.
He said in his testimony at the court that both he and the deceased slept in the village and in the morning hours he and the deceased went to the stream to bathe and that on their way going they came across a cashew plantation and picked some and further went on and came across a cassava farm and that he saw a knife at the farm and took the knife and told the deceased that he wants to keep the knife and to help him cut off some cassava that they will use for food consumption.
Defense Counsel C. Tucker Esq continued with her address to members of a 12-man jury that no one was present at the scene of the crime and that all the witnesses who testified in the accused matter never said they saw the accused commit the crime or were at the scene of the crime that it’s only the accused person’s word against the Prosecution as she said it was only the deceased and the accused.
C. Tucker from the Legal Aid Board concluded because the prosecution charges the accused person for murder when no one was a witness to the crime and that they never saw the accused in the action of the alleged crime.
Y.S Kamara said that Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma in his testimony testified that his autopsy report conducted on the body of the deceased showed that the victim sustained a stabbed wound on the neck and excessive bleeding that led to hemorrhagic shock.
State Prosecutor Y.S Kamara Esq further said the exhibit clerk in his testimony also testified that a knife was found at the scene of the crime and that it was the accused himself who pointed at the place he hid the knife.
He continued that the accused organized the crime due to a text message he saw on the phone of the deceased and was not happy about nor complained about it.
He said the accused was not truthful with his testimony as on his statements to the police he said, he asked the deceased to travel with him, but in his testimony said the deceased willingly volunteered to travel with him which he said is a lie.
He said also that the accused also in his statements to the police that he asked the deceased to bathe with him at the village stream but in his testimony said the deceased willingly followed him to the stream.
Y.S Kamara Esq in his closing address to the Jury said the intention of the accused was to lure the deceased to the bush and kill her which he said he succeeded in doing so.
He said that it was in the bush that he showed the text message to the deceased and said that the deceased wanted to stab her but tripped and the knife fell on her neck.
He said the accused stabbed the deceased in the neck and called on his brother who reported the matter to the police.
He concluded in his address to the jury that the exhibits tendered at the court were one old blue knife, a Tecno Pop2 manual mobile and the last witness Abu Sana a policeman who was at the scene of the Crime.
The Judge, however, said the State Prosecutor said the court gives more weight to the testimonies made under oath in court rather than statements made to the police.
Members of the Jury retired at 15:06hours and returned with their unanimous verdict against the accused person.
Members of the Jury in their unanimous verdict against the accused found him guilty as charged with the offence.
Justice Augustine Kailey Musa sentenced the accused to life imprisonment at the Male Correctional facility.
Y. S Kamara Esq for the state and C. Tucker from Legal Aid Board for the accused.
