Beheading case | Former assistant teacher freed

One of the two men on trial for the murders of a St Catherine mother and her daughter this morning walked free from the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Sanja Ducally, a former assistant teacher at the St Catherine Primary School, was freed after presiding judge Vivene Harris upheld a no-case submission by his attorney and directed the jurors to return a verdict of not guilty.

Ducally and Kemar Riley have been on trial since November 6 for the July 20, 2011 killing of Charmaine Cover-Rattray, 40, and her 18-year-old daughter Joeith Lynch inside their Lauriston, St Catherine house.

Both women were chopped, shot and then decapitated.

Harris, in her ruling, indicated that there was no evidence of Ducally’s participation before or after the killings or that he was a part of the planning.

Anthony Williams, the attorney who represented Ducally, had argued in his no-case submission on Monday that prosecutors had not provided sufficient evidence to prove his client’s guilt.

Riley will now be called on to mount a defence as his trial continues.

Three other men, Adrian Campbell, Fabian Smith, and Roshane Goldson, have already pleaded guilty to non-capital murder for their involvement in the killings which stirred national outrage.

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