Four convicted of Granville killing
Published:Thursday | January 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
A jury has found four men guilty on one count of murder for the 2006 massacre in which four members of one family were killed and three others injured in the volatile community of Granville, St James.
The four, Alroy Shaw, Ricardo 'Stickman' Taylor, Rick 'Tappa Rat' Thorpe and Silvan 'Penguin' Green, appeared in the St James Circuit Court yesterday.
The 11-member jury, which retired twice yesterday, returned a 10 to one majority verdict as they found the men guilty on one count of murder.
Justice Bryan Sykes has ordered a retrial for the men on the other three counts.
The men are to return to court on February 17 for sentencing.
Allegations are that on Saturday, November 18, 2006, about 11 p.m. a family of nine residing at Red Dirt, Granville, St James, retired to bed when their front door was kicked open by gunmen, some wearing marked police vests.
Police theorised that there were about eight men carrying high- powered weapons. When they left the home, a mother, Lyris Ellis-Johnson; her daughter Kaya Wilson and sons Curtis Wilson and Dalton Johnson Jr were dead.
Three other members of the family were hospitalised, while two escaped unhurt.