By Grace Q. Bryant
The Criminal Court “A” Judge, Roosevelt Willie has sentenced President George Weah’s Deputy Protocol Officer, Cleopatra Cummings to a five-year imprisonment.
Cleo was found unanimously guilty by a 12-man panel jury for aggravated assault meted against Madam Grace Wah, a Teacher-Assistant, at the GIG International School in Bardnersville.
According to the court, two of her five-year jail sentence charges were dropped on grounds that a pre-sentencing investigation showed that she had had no prior criminal record.
Defense lawyers took exception to Judge Willie’s ruling and announced an appeal to the Supreme Court.
In recent time, the Grand Jury of Montserrado County indicted Cleo for allegedly attempting to kill Madam Wah with a razor blade and the defendant was turned over to Criminal Court “A” by Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, the Solicitor General of Liberia, for prosecution over the crime of Aggravated Assault.
Her indictment was triggered by Magistrate Patrick Tamba’s March 8 legal conference with defense and prosecuting lawyers at the Gardnersville Magisterial Court.
The jury, which consisted of nine women and three men, returned from its room of deliberation after six hours of careful consideration of all evidences adduced during the trial and unanimously brought down a guilty verdict against the defendant, Cleopatra Cummings.
The trial lasted for three weeks and it was proven by the victim’s witnesses that Cleo did commit the crime against victim Weah; the defense witnesses did not prove their case beyond all reasonable doubts.
During the proceeding, probable cause was established regarding the President’s Protocol Officer’s action against victim Wah consistent with Chapter 12, Section 12.3 of the Criminal Procedure of Liberia.
After the Jury’s unanimous guilty verdict, the lawyer’s representing Cleo filed a motion for a new trial stating that the verdict had no proof and did not show any proof whatsoever that the jury’s verdict was decided by lot or any other means and that it was the fair expression of the opinion of all the jurors.
The prosecution lawyer prayed the court to dismiss and set aside the said motion for new trial on grounds that the information was misleading and the deliberation of the jurors showed nobody’s presence in the room to know by what means the verdict was arrived at, except that the movants were telling the court that they were spying the jurors in the room, which is contrary to law.
After the argument, Judge Willie denied the motion on grounds that the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence and ordered the court to report the probation of the Ministry of Justice for a formal sentencing hearing.
