Thirty-two-year-old Hillary Edwards was yesterday found guilty of the September 17, 2017 murder of 13-year-old Leonard Archibald.
Edwards, of Sisters Village, East Bank Berbice had pleaded not guilty to the capital offence when his trial commenced before Berbice High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall and a 12 member jury.
However, when the case was called yesterday, the 12-member jury found him guilty of the crime. Justice Morris-Ramlall is expected to hear a probation report before sentencing on February 11, 2021.
Reports are that Archibald had disappeared while following his two sisters to a birthday party.
Police had arrested Edwards along with another man a day after the lad’s reported disappearance. Under intense questioning, Edwards reportedly confessed to luring the teen, sodomising him until he was unconscious, and dumping his body in the Berbice River.
Archibald’s bicycle was found five days later along the Sisters’ Village foreshore. The following day, Archibald’s partly decomposed body was discovered on the Kortberaadt shore, some two miles from his home.
Edwards had admitted to abducting the teen while he was riding along the public road.
Obediah Nicholas Christopher, also known as “Bee Boy,” was charged along with Edwards. However, he was freed after a magistrate discharged the matter against him following submissions by his attorney Mursaline Bacchus.
