By Saio Marrah
A police recorded statement of fourth accused, 23-year-old David Fortune alias Stone of 16 Water Lane Allentown, in an ongoing murder trial at a High Court in Freetown, has indicated that the accused admitted to killing Mohamed Umar Karmoh Kamara at Adams Street in Freetown.
This was revealed at Court No.1 before Justice Adrian Fisher on Friday 1st September 2023 when the Police investigator, Corporal Alie Daramy Koroma, former Detective attached to Eastern Police Station in Freetown, was reading out the accused’s police statement.
The fourth accused was arrested on the 21st of August 2021 after the first, second, and third accused had been arrested in March 2019.
According to the statement, he confessed to police that he stabbed the accused with scissors, while the third accused, Alhassan Kamara alias Bigger, stabbed the deceased with a knife because according to him, the deceased also stabbed him (fourth accused) in his head with a knife.
The accused recounted saying he did not report the deceased to police for stabbing him (fourth accused) because he was on the run after he had learned that the stab victim haddied after the incident.
According to the police witness, the fourth accused agreed that the deceased died as a result of the stabbed wounds and general bodily pain inflicted by him, the first accused Santigie Bangura, Second accused Abdul Rahman Dumbuya, and the third accused Alhassan Kamara alias Bigger.
“We are now putting it to you that you conspired together with….to brutally murder the deceased at Adams Street in Freetown. Is that correct? Yes sir,” the police statement reads in court.
Responding to a comment by police that he (the fourth accused) would be charged to court for conspiracy and murder, he was quoted saying “I am ready to go to court because I am guilty of the offence levied against me.”
Also, the statements of the first accused, who was said to have been brought to the Eastern Police Station together with the second accused by angry mobs on 25th March 2019 from the house of the third accused, the third accused was also brought to the police station by another angry mob on the 26th March. Save the fourth accused, the three accused narrated similar accounts of the incident.
According to the statement of the first accused, he denied the murder allegation and that on the day of the incident, 24 March 2019, they were at Solar off Mountain Cut when an argument broke out between the deceased and the fourth accused.
The statement read out in court indicated that the fourth accused poured liquor on the deceased, which prompted the deceased to order the fourth accused to wipe it with his clothes, but the fourth accused refused to do so.
Later in the evening of the same day, he was reported saying he(first) accused was standing with his friends including the second, third, and fourth accused at Owen Street when a member of the deceased’s click club slapped him (second accused) on his face.
The first accused reportedly told the police that the deceased also slapped him on the grounds that he (the first accused) was arguing with his (deceased’s) friend.
“That gave me the cause to chase him (deceased) towards Adams Street. No sooner, did I get closer to him; he drew a knife and stabbed me on the side of my stomach. So, I had to fall on the ground because of the injury he had inflicted on me. While on the ground, he also used the same knife to stab me on both armpits,” the statement read out in court.
At that juncture, he said the third and fourth accused and others chased the deceased, while the second accused took him (first accused) to a nearby nurse for treatment.
It is revealed that the nurse refused to attend to him due to the seriousness of the wounds, but that she injected him with a painkiller.
It is further noted that he was then taken to the residence of the fourth accused at Moa Wharf for ‘rescue’ where they were arrested.
Before reading out the statement, the police witness earlier told the court that when the matter was reported to him at the station, he visited the scene of the crime, saw bloodstain on the ground, and discovered a knife with a bloodstain.
When the first and second accused were brought to the police station, he said police took them to Kingtom Hospital for treatment because they had been beaten up by the angry mob.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge, Justice Fisher, during the proceeding reconstituted the 12 jurors on the grounds that the jurors had not been turning up for the trial thereby delaying the trial.
He warned the newly reconstituted jurors to always appear in court for the trial. He noted that the initial jurors would pay a price for their act.
He said the murder trial that had started all over, would be completed this week.
While all the accused are charged with conspiracy and murder, the fourth accused is separately charged with accessory. The case resumes today, 4th September 2023.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (04/09/23)
