TWO Guadalcanal men facing separate murder charges have been committed to stand trial in the High Court.
Rex Alley, who was accused of stabbing to death his sister in-law, has been sent to the High Court following a short form preliminary inquiry conducted on his case on Thursday.
After finding sufficient evidence through the inquiry documents that was tendered to court, Principal Magistrate Edwin Saramo committed Alley to stand trial in the High Court.
Alley is facing one count of murder in relation to the allegation at Tenaru, east Guadalcanal, on New Year’s Eve (31 December, 2014).
He allegedly used a kitchen knife where he cut his sister in-law on her shoulder and leg while she was trying to take his son from him.
The alleged incident occurred when the deceased Lynette and her sister Laisa from Isabel went up to Tenaru in search of Laisa’s son.
Laisa is Alley’s wife.
It was alleged that the accused took the child to Tenaru and escaped to the bush when the deceased and her sister arrived there.
The two sisters were told by a couple living in a house where the accused left his belongings that day that the accused and the child took off into the bush.
It was alleged that the deceased then followed the accused and his son into the bush towards the cocoa trees about 10 metres away from where the couple lived.
Her sister was also searching in the bush when she heard the voice of a child crying from the bush and as she went closer, she saw the accused pointing a knife at the deceased’s thigh.
She ran towards her son, held him and escaped back to the couple’s house leaving the deceased alone with Alley.
When the couple ran to help the deceased, they allegedly saw her trying to sit up and bleeding from her back shoulder and legs.
They carried her back to their house and wash the blood off her before taking her to the National Referral Hospital.
The deceased died the next day at the hospital.
Post mortem showed she died from the stab wounds as a result of blood loss.
Meanwhile, in the other murder case, Salestine Thugea was committed to the High Court for trial on Friday.
This also followed a short form preliminary inquiry on his case before Principal Magistrate Fatima Taeburi.
Ms Taeburi sent Thugea to the High Court after finding enough evidence to stand trial in the High Court.
Thugea was accused of the brutal murder of a man in 2011 at Dudula Village, East Guadalcanal.
He is co-accused with John Sikua, Seford Sikua, Harold Saea and Stanley Gitoa who were already committed to the High Court for trial previously.
Gitoa is currently serving a life time imprisonment for another separate murder case while is also remanded in custody for this murder case.
All the accused were part of a group of men disturbed a reconciliation meeting at Dudula village in East Guadalcanal.
Prosecution alleged the deceased was also attending the meeting that was about to start when the accused men and their group arrived.
The meeting was organised by chiefs in that area to settle claims that a little girl died as a result of sorcery.
The accused’s group allegedly came and argued with the deceased’s group and a fight broke out.
It was alleged the four men attacked the deceased and when the deceased tried to run away from them, Thugea chased the deceased with a bayonet.
Prosecution alleged that Saea allegedly intercepted the deceased and assaulted him when he fell on to the ground.
Thugea then allegedly took a bush knife and brutally butchered open the deceased’s belly.
The deceased died shortly after he was butchered.
The Public Solicitor’s Office is representing the accused in this separate murder case while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) represents the State.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
