Police says, blood stain found at ‘murder’ scene
February 25, 2016 By Hawa Amara
Detective Police Constable (DPC) Kabbah Turay, attached to the Criminal Investigation Department at the Lumley Police Station, yesterday told a Freetown Magistrate that blood stain was discovered at the scene of crime where one Sia Nyuma was murdered.
While testifying before Magistrate Manuella Harding at the Pademba Road Magistrates’ Court No.2, DPC Turay said on Sunday, 7 February, 2016, while on duty, one Cornelius Martin of No.5 Cassava Farm, Juba Hill, reported that the accused (Alfred Koroma) had assaulted the deceased and that she was unconscious and had to be rushed to the Emergency Hospital.
The detective constable told the court that while Martin was narrating what had transpired between the deceased and the accused, news came in that the deceased had died.
DPC Turay explained that based on that information, he and a senior crime officer visited No. 5 Cassava Farm residence and discovered blood stain on the floor, which the senior crime officer photographed.
He said an off-white lady’s shoe was identified to him as weapon the accused used to hit the deceased. “I then took possession of the shoe to the station and handed it over to the exhibit clerk, and thereafter I went to the Emergency Hospital and conveyed the body to Connaught Hospital mortuary.”
He continued that on 11 February, 2016, he witnessed the postmortem examination conducted by government pathologist Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, adding that the senior crime officer and a relative of the deceased also witnessed the postmortem.
The witness said a photocopy of the death certificate was handed over to him, which he identified in court as exhibit Z.
He stated that a voluntary caution statement was obtained from the accused in Krio, and that on 15 February, 2016 the charge statement was obtained from him.
Sibling to the deceased, Mariama Mansaray, told the court that she knew the accused as the boyfriend of the deceased. She said on 7 February, 2016 she was at home at around 9am sleeping when she received a call, shortly before the deceased went into her room to chat for a while before she left.
She told the court that she subsequently overheard another of their siblings Baindu, shouting that the accused wanted to beat the deceased. She said: “Me and Theresa went downstairs and saw the accused harassing the deceased to hand her phone to him. The accused then took the phone from the deceased and went into the boy quarters and I went to him and asked him to give the deceased’s phone but he refused. The deceased then replied that let’s leave him, ‘it only a shameless man that can take a lady’s phone’. The accused then came out of the room and threw the phone at the deceased and stated ‘I am not a shameless man and cheap guy.”
The witness explained that the deceased took her phone and told the accused that their relationship was over and went upstairs. “The accused then went to the deceased and asked her to repeat what she just said. The accused still continued to urge the deceased and he said ‘I will damage her’. I advised the accused that what he was doing was not good and I told him ‘today you are not going to beat the deceased as you have been doing,” she narrated.
She said the accused then climbed the deceased’s bed and slapped her, adding that the former “held my hair and dragged me to the ground and started to slap me and the deceased then came between and separated us.” She said the accused then held the deceased by her hair, floored her and started hitting her face, head and temple, as well as kicked her side.
“The deceased was crying saying ‘Alfred you are killing me’, and she continued to shout until she stopped. The accused wanted to go, but I got up and followed him and told him to take the deceased to the hospital,” she further testified. “On our way downstairs we met Baindu along the steps, she was also slapped by the accused. She then went upstairs to the deceased and I overheard her shouting before neighbours came and took the deceased to the veranda.”
She said the accused refused to provide money to hire a taxi to rush the deceased to hospital, as he retorted that she was faking to have fainted.
The witness said the deceased was eventually taken to hospital by a neighbour called Samuel, before she went to the Lumley Police Station to make a report. She added that she was making statement to the police when she received a call from their brother Maada that the deceased had passed away.
The accused, Alfred Koroma, was arraigned on one count of murder contrary to law.
According to prosecutor Inspector Moore, the accused on Sunday, 7 February, 2016 murdered Sia Nyuma, daughter of late Tom Nyuma – a member of a group of young army officers who overthrew President Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1992 – at their No.5 Cassava Farm residence.
The matter continues 2 March, 2016.