As a former Senior State Prosecutor/Counsel, Police Legal Advisor and Magistrate who prosecuted and tried many cases in Guyana, similar to Adrienna Younge’s, I am concerned that pertinent areas of the investigation are not lost in the sensationalism this matter has rightly generated.
The forensic pathologists’ reports must collectively, and conclusively establish that death was due to foul play, to wit, murder, and not accidental drowning, or otherwise. If death was the result of acts in furtherance of the commission of a felony, such as rape, kidnap, causing bodily harm and/or any violent act, it will still be murder, via the felony murder rule.
Former Government Pathologist, Dr. Leslie Mootoo, served as the forensic expert who established that the various murders and manslaughters I prosecuted were not due to natural causes, accident, or otherwise, but by foul play only. In the one case where justice was not served-State vs. Alvin Mitchell, (1984) 39 WIR 185, referred to in Guyana’s judicial history as “the Body in the Bush murder case.” Dr. Mootoo equivocally said that the deceased, Nastawantie Persaud, a waitress, could have fallen out of a moving jeep driven by the accused, and meet her horrible death, not by asphyxiation, but by accident. The corrupt Judge pounced upon the pathologist’s blunder, perversely upheld no case submissions, and acquitted the accused, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and public outrage. History has a way of repeating itself.
Lie detector tests, nexus of causative events, and DNA evidence linking the suspected perpetrators, are vital in this case, in the seemingly contrived disappearance of videos, audios and eyewitnesses. The pool, its water, the hotel rooms and the bodily parts of Adrianna, especially her fingernails, may still contain the culprits’ matching DNAs. Cell phones may contain incriminating texts, photos, audios, emails, messages, locations and other links connecting the vicious killers to their heinous crime, and must be analyzed. The DPP’s Office should try to obtain relevant Court orders expeditiously from the Judges for these and other items, citing the public, juridical and urgent nature of these requests.
No stone must be left unturned in Adrianna Younge’s death. The burden of proof to prove guilt in a criminal case is a high one-beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors and the Guyana Police Force, and international allies, must do their job, for “The power of evil men lives on in the cowardice of the good.” – St. John Bosco.
Hon. Albert Baldeo, District Leader, Little Guyana, USA
Fmr. Senior State Prosecutor, Police Legal Advisor and Magistrate, Guyana
(917) 548-1055