Businessman Marlan DaSilva was on Wednesday placed on custodial remand for the indictable charge of murder. The Director of Public Prosecutions recommended that a charge of murder be instituted against the businessman who allegedly shot and killed the mother of his three-year-old son in their Diamond, East Bank Demerara home on Saturday night.
Clad in a long white sleeve shirt, soft black pants and brown shoes, DaSilva stood in the prisoner’s box bewildered as the charge was read to him by Magistrate Wanda Fortune.
In the courtroom, occupying the seats on the right were his parents, siblings, and other relatives while two ladies said to be relatives of murdered Kenesha Vaughn sat on the left listening the proceedings.
Everton Lammy, one of three attorneys representing the thirty-two-year-old, told the court that his client has no previous convictions and that he and Vaughn were the parents of a three-year-old son. The other attorneys on DaSilva’s legal team are Sanjeev Datadin and Latchmie Rahamat.
Lammy told the court that he was disappointed that the Director of Public Prosecutions instituted a charge of murder against DaSilva without having a chance to view the video recording of the incident which led to Vaughn’s death.
According to Lammy he would be seeking to have the DPP reconsider the advice given considering the Guyana Police Force did not share the video evidence (the recording of the incident) with the chamber.
Based on the attorney’s statement he is hoping to have the DPP withdraw the charge of murder and advise that a charge of manslaughter be instituted instead.
The Prosecutor told the court that the police’s file was incomplete and that they are still awaiting the post-mortem and ballistic reports.
Kenesha Vaughn, who was a 27-year-old stay at home mother, was shot multiple times during an alleged altercation. According to a statement issued by the Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) of the Police Force, DaSilva claimed that he slapped Vaughn, following which she ran for a knife and approached him at which point he pulled out his gun and shot her several times. The mother of one collapsed immediately. DaSilva, the statement said, called the police who took the injured Vaughn to the hospital where she died while receiving treatment. DaSilva at the time of the shooting was said to be intoxicated according to the police.
DaSilva will return to court on March 21 when the matter will be called again for report.