A resident of Kaneville, East Bank Demerara who fatally stabbed a schoolboy has been found guilty of manslaughter.
Shannon Cox, 23, was indicted for the April 29, 2017 murder of 16-year-old Brian Charles Yearwood when he appeared before Demerara High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall.
After deliberating for just over two hours on Wednesday, the jury found Cox not guilty of murder but unanimously guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
A sentencing hearing for the convict has been fixed for March 10. He is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Madan Kissoon.
On Monday, Cox’s co-accused, 20-year-old Andy Peters, was freed after Justice Morris-Ramlall upheld the no-case submission made by his lawyer Latchmie Rahamat, and directed the jury to return a formal not-guilty verdict.
When called upon to lead a defence, Cox had elected to give an unsworn statement in which he denied knowing or killing Yearwood.
He said, “I didn’t have no problem with no one…I don’t know the person who dead. Is when I go at the station they show me a picture of him [Yearwood]… I cooperate with them [Police] because I know me ain’t do nothing ma’am…”
Senior State Counsel Lisa Cave led the case for the prosecution.
Yearwood, formerly of Grove Public Road, EBD, was stabbed once to the chest while attending a concert hosted by the Covent Garden Nursery School in the school’s compound. It was reported that the stabbing stemmed from an old grievance between the now dead teen and some other boys.
Yearwood, who was a student of the Covent Garden Secondary School, was found lying motionless on the grass by an off-duty cop. He was rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Reports are that the murder weapon, a knife, was found at the home of one of the persons accused of killing Yearwood.
