Alpha Kamara, a Sierra Leone Police officer, was sent to prison by Magistrate Mark Ngegba of Court No1 for the alleged murder of Abubakar Munu.
The accused, who made his first appearance in court, was charged with one count of murder contrary to section 1 of the Offenses Against The Person Act 1816, as repealed and replaced by the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 2021 act No 6 of 2022.
According to the particulars of the offence, the accused on Monday, August 14, 2023, at Kissi Town in Waterloo murdered Abu Bakarr Munu.
When the charge was read to him, no plea was taken.
The prosecution witness No. 1, Alfred Ibrahim Conteh, a businessman, led in evidence by ASP Ibrahim S Mansaray, said he knew both the accused and the deceased in the matter.
He further recalled Monday, August 14, 2023, when he was at his business place at Waterloo in the morning hours when the accused came and complained the deceased to in respect of a gold chain.
“I then called the deceased and told him that the accused had complained to him in respect of a gold chain, but the deceased replied he would only give the accused the chain after he paid him his Le 240,000,” the witness explained.
The witness said that the following day, the accused came to his shop, and told him what the deceased had said.
“After closing my business centre and on my way home, I met the accused and the deceased fighting. I then tried to stop them, but they could not listen. I called for help because the accused was with his friends,” he said.
According to the witness, some people came to the scene and tried to stop the fight, but they could not, adding that while the fight was ongoing, one of the friends of the accused was taking a video shot of the scene.
The accused, he said, took out a pepper spray from his pocket and sprayed it on the face of the deceased while holding on to him.
The deceased, he said, was crying when they took him to a nearby pharmacy, but the accused was still fighting the deceased.
“When the accused noticed that the deceased could no longer breathe properly, he stopped the fight and tried to flee, but I held him tightly and called for help,” the witness said.
“Some neighbours came to the scene and held on to the accused while I went to the Kissi Town police post to report the incident,” he stated.
He said two police officers accompanied him to the scene and took both the accused and the deceased to the police station.
He said while they were at the station, the deceased was taken to Waterloo Hospital where he was pronounced dead by a doctor.
He said he went back to the police station together with the remains of the deceased where he made statements.
During cross-examination by lawyer Gevao, the witness said on the day of the incident, the accused were physically holding on to each other when he removed the pepper spray and sprayed it on the face of the deceased.
When he was asked whether he was there when the fight erupted, the witness replied in the affirmative, adding that the deceased was heftier than the accused.
The witness also told the court that there were seven people during the fight, but only two were holding on to the accused while the others were preventing people from stopping the fight.
When he was asked where was the deceased when the police came, the witness said he was at the pharmacy, adding that the deceased was taken to the police station by a car.
At this juncture, the prosecutor ASP Mansaray requested for an adjournment to call his second witness.
Magistrate Ngegba remanded the accused and adjourned the matter to September 28, 2023.
