Some prominent residents of Maryland County, specifically Rock Town, are said to be interfering and almost preventing the prosecution of defendants on trial for gruesomely murdering the General Town Chief and two of his men.
In September, 2019, the General Town Chief and two of his men were butchered with cutlasses and other deadly weapons while individuals who stood as sureties for the defendants with the agreement to provide them whenever the court needs them have failed.
The presiding Judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit Court in Fish Town, River Gee County, George W. Smith, complained that some lawmakers have been calling and threatening him to abandon the murder case.
Some of the prominent residents accused of preventing the alleged murderers (defendants) are Peter G. Saygbe, Nicholas Tarwah, Alfred Weah, Willie Gbawie and Isaac Folee.
For failure to produce the living bodies of the defendants who allegedly murdered their general town Chief on accusations of being a witch, Judge Smith held the sureties in contempt of court.
The alleged murderers, Chea Doe Karmanue, Cyrus T. Doe, John T. Weah, Toe Dargba Moses Chea, Sam Gbogue, Daniel Weah, Solomon Weah, Jacob Doe, Vasco Weah, Toeson Hinneh, Prince Doe and Amos Gbawie all were charged with Murder, Criminal Conspiracy and Criminal Facilitation.
According to Judge Smith, the contempt proceedings grew out of a murder case in which the defendants were indicted on October 16, 2019 at the 4th Judicial Circuit Court in Maryland County.
According to the trial narrative, based on a change of venue, the case found its way to the 15th Judicial Circuit in River Gee County in 2020 while another change of venue motion was filed by the defendants apparently based on the assistance and instigation of the then Solicitor General Saymah Syrenius Cephus, but said motion was denied.
Unfortunately, thereafter, the case could not be tried as the court found it difficult to get the cooperation of the prosecution.
One of the impediments was that there were “no prosecution funds” to procure the attendance of material witnesses.
Under the Liberian Constitution, Article 21(d) (i) thereof, defendants in capital offenses like murder, are not entitled to bail.
Article 21(h) of the same Constitution provides that defendants indicted for capital offenses, like murder, are also entitled to speedy trial.
However, in fulfillment of the constitutional requirement for speedy trial, Sections 18.1 and 18.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law, it mandates that criminal defendants be released if they are not indicted or tried after the expiration of two successive terms of court.
In the wisdom of the then assigned circuit judge Gee-plah Tiklo Konton, the defendants, therefore, were granted bail on December 22, 2021 on condition that they appear on February 14, 2022 during the February 2022 term of court, and with the further condition that the sureties shall “make said defendants available to the court” and that the sureties promised.
Judge Smith added that from 2020 when the case was transferred to his court and up to December 22, 2022 that the defendants were released on bail, far more than two terms of court had elapsed without the defendants being tried which accordingly is a violation of Article 21(h) of the Constitution and Sections 18.1 and 18.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law guaranteeing speedy trial.
Unfortunately, in violation of the terms and conditions of the bail bond and statute, these bailed defendants jumped their bail and failed to appear in court on February 14, 2022 and up to present.
On March 1, 2024, the court was then compelled to hold the sureties at the Fish Town Central Prison for contempt of court for failing to make the defendants available in court in accordance with Section 12.6(1) ‘Failure to appear after release; bail jumping, Penal Law, 4 LCLR.’
During their detention, one Beatrice Bardioh, surety Samuel Bardioh’s daughter, went on the community radio in Fish Town and complained, among other things, that her father, along with the other sureties, were being beaten and maltreated at the prison; that the sureties did not actually know the defendants personally but that they agreed to stand as sureties because they are all of the same Barrobo tribe.
“She added that the sureties of Barrobo- Rock Town, from where the defendants hail and to whose custody the defendants were actually delivered, promised to make the defendants available in court on February 14, 2022; and that the sureties were soliciting funds from their lawmakers and others under the pretext of defending the defendants in court at the detriment of her father and the other sureties,” Judge Smith narrated.
The 15th Judge Circuit judge said, the court therefore cited Beatrice Bardioh for a conference to verify her accusations and during the conference, she stated that all the allegations were true except the accusation that her father and the other sureties were being maltreated in detention.
The allegation of maltreatment, she said, was made to draw the government’s attention and sympathy.
She then appealed for the release of her father and others with a promise to work with the court in arresting the escapees/defendants.
Judge Smith furthered that Beatrice’s father, Samuel Bardioh, one of the sureties, along with bailiffs Elijah Slobber and Meh Toe went to Barrobo Rock Town to have the defendants arrested.
Unfortunately, according to them, the defendants could not be arrested because there were phone calls to Rock Town alerting the respondents not to surrender the defendants.
Judge Smith explained that few hours after getting this information, one Nelson Toe, kinsman of the defendants, called and questioned the judge’s authority to arrest the defendant, on the misinformation that the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court had since released the defendants in 2022 adding, “That I, Judge Smith, was from America and did not know the Liberian law and Constitution for which reason the Chief Justice assigned me to Sinoe and that I, Judge Smith, was trying to get money from the defendants.”
“With the assistance of Beatrice Bardioh, along with an informant then in Monrovia, the police and Criminal Court “A” of Montserrado County, the principal murder defendant, Chea Doe Karmanue, was arrested in Monrovia along with Nelson Toe and committed to the Monrovia Central Prison,” Judge Smith continued.
Nelson Toe who had been preventing the arrest of the defendants was later released through the intervention of one Charles Weah, two lawmakers from Maryland County and both the County Attorney and the Public Defender on condition that Charles Weah would accompany Nelson Toe to court to stand contempt of court proceedings.
Unfortunately, more than three months have elapsed without Weah making Toe available to court instead, Weah stopped communication with the court.
Later, the court was informed that Weah is in fact the brother of co-defendant Solomon Weah, the co-defendant who allegedly used cutlass to chop General Town Chief Isaac Saylee, Isaac Jorkol Toe and David Nugbo to death and that Weah was also involved in preventing the defendants from being arrested.
Toe and Weah, also residents of Barrobo, are on-the-run; evading arrest for contempt of court and according to the court’s informant, they went to Fishtown and met Judge Smith and the County Attorney.
He informed us that the sureties did not actually know the defendants personally; that the sureties stood for the defendants as sureties because they are all from the Barrobo tribe though from different clans; that it was respondents Peter G. Saygbe, Nicholas Tarwah, Alfred Weah and Willie Gbawie from Barrobo Rock Town who indeed sent two representatives, Kehjue Nagbe and Isaac Folee, to Fishtown to take custody of the defendants from the sureties in order to deliver them unto the custody of respondents; that it was these four respondents who indeed promised to make the defendants available to this court on February 14, 2022 and that it was the four respondents preventing the arrest and appearance of the defendants in court.
On August 19, 2024 the court then issued and served a writ of arrest on Isaac Folee and Kehjue Nagbe, agents of the respondents.
Folee escaped, while Nagbe willingly appeared in the chambers of the court in the presence of the Judge, the County Attorney and Public Defender.
Nagbe admitted that both Folee and himself were sent by the respondents to Fish Town, to take custody of the defendants from the sureties on condition that the said respondents would make the defendants available to the court on February 14, 2022.
Nagbe was discharged with thanks of court and he assured the court that he would encourage the respondents to appear in court in order to account for the defendants.
A writ of summons was issued for the appearance of respondents Peter Saygbe, Nicholas Tarwah, Alfred Weah and Willie Gbawie, along with Folee who had earlier escaped.
They all, except Folee, appeared in court on Monday, September 9, 2024 but Folee was later arrested and forthwith brought in court.
From an investigation in these contempt proceedings, witnesses’ testimonies showed that the respondents(sureties) are in fact the ones who actually know the defendants; all of whom are from the same place; that the respondents have control over the defendants; that respondents took custody of the defendants and promised to make said defendants available to the court which they failed and refused to do and that the respondents took advantage of and used their kinsmen in River Gee, namely: Peter Weah, Melvin Weah, David Weah, Anthony Wakawee and Samuel Bardioh to appear in court as sureties of the defendants.
In other words, the actual and real sureties, in the mind of this court, are the respondents (sureties) while those who represented themselves in court as sureties for the defendants were fronting for the respondents.
The testimonies showed that the respondents (sureties) sent two of their kinsmen namely, Folee and Nagbe to receive the defendants from their fronters; that the respondents promised to make the defendants available to the court on February 14, 2022; and that instead of producing the defendants, the respondents have resorted to preventing the arrest of the defendants, harboring and concealing the defendants in order to prevent their appearance and trial in court.
Samuel Bardioh, was one of the five persons who appeared in the court as surety/fronter.
The spokesperson of the sureties/fronters, testified that the defendants were delivered unto the custody of the respondents through their agents with the promise that the respondents would make the defendants available in court and that the respondents failed and refused to produce the defendants.
Bailiff Meh Toe, who went along with Samuel Bardioh to arrest the defendants, also testified that the respondents refused and failed to surrender the defendants.
Folee and Nagbe who received the defendants on behalf of the respondents testified and admitted that they received and delivered defendants unto the custody of the respondents and that they and the respondents know that the defendants were released on bail.
And when the court inquired from the respondents through their spokesperson, co-respondent Nicholas Tarwah, as to the whereabouts of the defendants he replied: “We did not come with them.”
When the writ of arrest was issued on the defendants, instead of surrendering the defendants to the court, respondents Saygba, Terwah, Weah, Gbawie along with Toe and Weah, residents of Monrovia have decided to prevent the arrest of the defendants in violation of the Penal law.
The Judge explained that it was the court that partly assisted by the County Attorney to substantially underwrite the costs for searching for and arresting two of the defendants in Pleebo, Maryland County, and Monrovia, respectively.
Meanwhile, the court is calling on the government, particularly the LNP and the Joint Security, to assist in arresting defendants Weah, Gbawie, Weah, Hinneh, Doe, Gbogue, Chea, Prince Doe and Daniel Weah who were indicted and facing trial allegedly for the gruesome “butchering, chopping, hacking the hands, necks and faces” of General Town Chief Saylee, Toe and Nugbo to death with “cutlasses, hammers and sticks.”
The court then rendered respondents Saygba, Tarwah, Gbawie and Weah guilty of Contempt of Court for preventing the arrest of the defendants; harboring and concealing the defendants and hindering, interfering with, delaying and preventing the prosecution of the defendants.
While respondents Saygbe, Terwah, Weah and Gbawie were sentenced to the Fish Town Central Prison until they make the defendants available in court for trial and respondent Folee, a flight risk, was adjudged guilty of contempt of court.
In addition to cost of court, Folee is fined US$200 or its Liberian Dollar equivalent, and remanded to the Fish Town Central Prison until he pays his fine and cost of court.
