Cunupia bar owner acquitted of daughter’s friend’s murder

Derek Achong

A 51-year-old bar owner from Cunupia has been freed of murdering a friend of his daughter following an incident at their home in 2020.

Kervin “Duffy” Harrynarine was acquitted of the crime at the end of his judge-alone trial before Justice Nalini Singh on Thursday.

Harrynarine was accused of killing Devon Brown on June 21, 2020.

Harrynarine and several relatives were in the bar located under his house when they reportedly heard his daughter scream from upstairs.

The men rushed to her assistance and reportedly found her fighting with Brown.

Harrynarine was accused of stabbing Brown while he was running out of the house.

Brown was found lying at the side of the road with multiple stab wounds and succumbed to his injuries at hospital.

Harrynarine and his then 27-year-old daughter were arrested, but only he was eventually charged based on the evidence of his cousin’s son, Andy Seebaran, who claimed that he saw Harrynarine stab Brown.

During the trial, Harrynarine’s lawyer, Taradath Singh, raised numerous inconsistencies in Seebaran’s evidence over what allegedly transpired.

In deciding the case, Justice Singh agreed that the witnesses’ evidence, which prosecutors claimed was corroborated by CCTV footage, was unreliable.

“I am not satisfied, so that I am sure, that Andy Seebaran accurately saw the accused stab the deceased,” Justice Singh said.

“The difficulty lies in the combination of the poor lighting, the fast-moving and chaotic nature of the incident, the unclear quality of the video, and most importantly, the material inconsistencies as to where Andy Seebaran was positioned at the critical moment when he says he saw the stabbing,” she added.

Justice Singh noted that her finding did not mean that Seebaran was being deliberately untruthful.

“I recognise that honest witnesses can be mistaken, especially in stressful and fast-moving circumstances,” she said.

“The danger is whether, in the confusion of the struggle, in poor lighting, from a disputed vantage point, he accurately saw the accused inflict the stab wounds, rather than later reconstructing the event from what he believed had happened or from what he later saw on the video,” she added.

She noted that the video did not remove reasonable doubt, as it did not clearly show Harrynarine stabbing Brown.

“That doubt is not speculative,” she said.