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COMPOL Speaks on Zayna Charge
posted (May 17, 2019)

Ever since Corozal resident Zayna Armstrong was charged for manslaughter and not murder, there’s has been an outcry on social media from her family and friends.  The 20 year old killed 19 year old Ana Villanueva last Sunday night - by stabbing her with a three inch knife right into the heart.  

Commissioner Chester Williams is very attuned to that kind of Facebook chatter - and his office issued a statement yesterday.  Today, he explained why the manslaughter charge was laid, and how it could change:…

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"And so, based on what we had at the time in the file, the office of the Director of Public Persecution directed that we proceed for now with the manslaughter charge so as not to release the young lady free of any charge. And gave the investigators further work to be done and once those further works have been completed then the file will be sent back to her along with the further work and a final determination will be made as to whether or not the DPP will upgrade the charge from manslaughter to murder. You would know that section 50, subsection 2 of the constitution gives the DPP that power to be able to indict. This is not the indictment stage, this is just the charging stage. What will count will be what the DPP indicts for after the preliminary inquiry. So, we can go through at this stage with the manslaughter and at the PI, if there is sufficient evidence the DPP can then indict for murder. So, if it is that the evidence exists then, based on the investigation, I am sure that the DPP's office is going to do that. But to say that the decision was made because of the fact that the accused has some relative in police, that is far from the truth. I for one do not operate like that and I am sure, as God made Moses, that the DPP does not operate like that."

Reporter
"The young lady came, left and returned obviously with a knife. I would think that it was premeditated, sir."

Chester Williams - Compol
"Like said, Mr. Moodey, I do not want to go into details. But I am sure that if you would read the transcript, I don't know how could Channel 5's one is, but I read Channel 7's one, and no offence to Channel 5, right. But from my read of Channel 7's one and what I have learnt is that yes the lady had gone but nobody in that interview said, 'Well, when she left she never had a knife and when she came back she had a knife.' Nobody could say that, right. That is one. Two, I saw in the interview, again, that the eyewitness did not say that she saw the accused inflicting the stab wound. There are several things that I can punch holes through."

We’ll keep following the case as it goes through the court process.

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