Stone Miner Gets 30 years & 24-year-old Housewife, Life Imprisonment
Court of Appeal Judge, Hon. Justice Monfred Sesay, on Friday 1st April, 2022, sentenced 37-year-old Stone Miner, Foday Sesay, to 30 years’ imprisonment for murder.
It follows a unanimous guilty verdict of an eleven-member-jury against Foday Sesay in respect of a count indictment of murder.
According to the particulars of the case, the accused, Foday Sesay, was alleged to have on the 26th March 2017 at Freetown in the Western Area of the Country, murdered one Alimamy Sesay.
In his summing up address to the jurors, Justice Monfred Sesay stressed on the weight and seriousness of the case, and urged them not to attach emotions in their considerations, but to deliver justice to both the victim and the accused as the facts in the case revealed. He said that the burden and standard of proof in all criminal trials of this nature is that, the Prosecution must prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, by meeting all the elements of the offence charged.
Justice Sesay drew the attention of the jury to the autopsy report and Medical Certificate of the cause of death tendered by Prosecution Witness, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, as well as the evidence of the other three witnesses.
Deceased, Alimamy Sesay, was said to have had an argument with the convict, which turned very bitter and eventually resulted in him being stabbed.
Led in evidence by State Counsel Aruna Jalloh, the third Prosecution Witness, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, told the court that the deceased died as a result of stab wound on the chest.
Following the guilty verdict of the jurors, the convict in his allocutus, pleaded for mercy, stating that he had been ill since 2017 when he was indicted. He also informed the court that he is now partially blind and unable to walk, except to be carried like a baby, few weeks back.
In his plea in mitigation, Defense Counsel, R.S Bangura, said his client was a first time offender and a stone Miner, which accounts for his only source of income to fend for his family. He continued that his client’s health condition hasn’t been good while in incarceration.
Hon. Justice Monfred Sesay sentenced the convict to 30 years’ imprisonment, with sentence to run concurrently.
In another related matter, Court of Appeal Judge, Honourable Justice John Bosco Allieu, also sentenced 24-year-old house wife, Saffinatu Bangura, to life imprisonment for murder.
A 10-member-jury unanimously returned a guilty verdict in respect of one count indictment of murder.
The State had alleged that Saffinatu, on the 13th day of June, 2018, at During Town in the Western Area of Freetown, murdered one Rebecca Bangura.
Upon her arraignment, the accused denied the allegation.
The Prosecution led in evidence a number of witnesses in support of their case. In his certified medical cause of death, the 6th Prosecution witness, Dr. Simon Owizz Koroma, who performed an autopsy on the remains of the deceased, said she died as a result of manual strangulation, with finger nail marks on her neck and a beaten tongue.
In her statement to the police, the accused said she had given a “Garri” she had poisoned for rats to the deceased to eat. Acting on the verdict of the jurors, Justice Allieu sentenced the convict to life imprisonment.
By Alpha Paul Kamara
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