By Fatima Kpaka
A Military Officer attached to the Joint Logistics Unit (JLU), Murray Town in Freetown, Farrrah Turay, has on Friday, January 26, 2024 testified before Magistrate Santigie Bangura of Pademba Road Magistrate Court No. 2 in the case of the alleged murder of his younger brother Samuel Turay.
The accused, Kabba Dumbuya, a motor mechanic had been arraigned before the court on the offences of Murder and Incitement.
The accused is believed to have carried out the murder sometime between the 13th and 14th of October 2023 at Finnah Drive, Off Benguema Road, Waterloo in the Western Area Rural District.
The Information contained in the charge sheet, indicates that the accused on the above dates and place unlawfully conducted himself in a violent manner thereby creating a scene against the family members of Farrah Turay which resulted to the unlawful killing Samuel Turay.
After the charges had been read and explained to the accused person, he was not asked whether he was guilty or not.
Led in evidence by Sergeant 9155 Dwight Macarthy, the second prosecution witness, Farrah Turay recognized the accused person as his Neighbour, and noted that the deceased was his younger brother.
He recalled that on the 13th to 14th of October 2023 his mother called and informed him that the District Council had demolished a structure which he had been building which caused him to immediately come to the scene, and upon his arrival, he took his family members inside the house.
He explained that during that process, the accused person [Kabba Dumbuya] and other people hit him on the side with a stick.
“While they were fighting me, I saw my brother [now deceased] coming to the scene and as he was approaching me, the accused, his wife and other people hit him [the deceased] with sticks,” he testified, adding that he immediately went to the Waterloo Police Station and made a report.
“While I was at the Police Station, I saw a man name John bringing the deceased to the station,” he added. “The Police immediately issue a Police medical request form to the deceased and he was later taken to the Connaught hospital for treatment.”
The Police medical request form was produced and tendered in court in evidence.
On the following day, he said he received a telephone call that his brother had died.
In further evidence, the third prosecution witness Timothy Turay, a pensioner testified that the deceased was his son and the accused his Neighbour.
He recalled that on the above dates, City Council officers went to demolish their structure, and he reported the incident to the police, who later came to the scene and took snapshot.
The witness disclosed that around 7:00 p.m, “the accused came to their house and scattered the sticks of barricade and said blood would flow as he is ready to kill.”
Base on his threat, the witness said his wife called their son John Turay who came to the scene, and he had a confrontation with the accused.
He said that during the process, the deceased came to advise the accused, but the accused together with his wife and relatives started hitting the deceased on his head and he collapsed. He added that the deceased was taken to the Connaught Hospital where he later died.
The witness said a postmortem examination was conducted on the deceased in his presence at the mortuary, and the remains of deceased was later handed over to him for proper burial.
The said postmortem result was produced and tendered in court to form part of the prosecution’s case.
The witness was cross examined by defense counsel L.J. Kamara Esq.
Magistrate Bangura refused bail and sent the accused person to the male correctional facility in Freetown and the matter was adjourned for further hearing.