And 3 Of Her Relatives For “Insufficient Evidence” Linking Them To Murder Crime
But Who Killed Charloe Musu?
PHOTO: Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and family members released from the Monrovia Central Prison
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
Former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members have been set free today, Wednesday, August 28, 2024 by the Supreme Court of Liberia through a verdict overturning a guilty verdict of the Criminal Court “A”, which sentenced them to life imprisonment for allegedly murdering Charloe Musu last year (2023).
“The state did not meet the burden of proof to warrant the conviction of the defendants. Therefore, the defendants are hereby acquitted of the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy et al. as charged in the indictment,” Chief Justice Justice Youh ruled.
Charloe Musu was allegedly murdered in February 2023 at Cllr. Scott’s residence in the Monrovia suburb of Brewerville. The court found the Jury found them guilty of murder and the criminal court later sentenced them to life imprisonment, a term they have been serving at the Monrovia Central Prison for many months now to date.
The late Charloe Musu
Based on the jury’s verdict, Judge Roosevelt Willie immediately sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment, despite the defendants challenging the judge’s decision, and appealed against it to the highest court, which appeal arguments was held on Tuesday, July 16. Supreme Court To Decide Former Chief Justice Gloria Scott’s Fate This Wednesday – News Public Trust
Cllr Scott being led out of the Monrovia Central Prison by prison guards
Current Chief Justice, Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, who delivered the ruling on Wednesday at the Temple of Justice, said that there was not sufficient evidence to link Justice Scott and her relatives to the crime of murder.
Who killed Charloe Musu?
As news of the Supreme Court’s acquittal of the four sentenced family members of the late Charloe Musu spread, the unanswered question is, who killed the young Liberian student of the Starz IT College in Monrovia just when she was about to graduate when the tragedy struck.
The Supreme Court at the Temple of Justice on Capitol Hill in Monrovia was packed to its capacity, with members of public on the court grounds including family members of the defendants.
Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh speaking for the court said, that it is the law that the standard of proof to warrant a conviction in a criminal case is “ proof of beyond a reasonable doubt “ and that throughout the trial, the state bears the burden of establishing all elements of the crimes charged by the said standard of proof; and in the instance where reasonable doubt is inferred from the evidence by the prosecution, the defendant in a criminal case is entitled to an acquittal.
“That a verdict presented by the jury may be set aside, where the verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence” and that the state having totally relied on circumstantial evidence but failed to meet the standards as required by law to connect link by link the chain needed to lead any reasonable mind to the conclusion of guilt that the appellants (defendants) did murder Charloe Musu, the guilty verdict returned by the jury was against the weight of the evidence and it is set aside.
Wherefore, and in view of the foregoing, the final ruling of the trial court confirming the verdict of the jury is hereby reversed.
The appellants Gloria Musu Scott, Ma Rebecca Youdeh Winser, Gertrude Newton and Alice Johnson are ordered immediately released from further detention at the Monrovia Central prison and their civil rights, liberties and all other constitutional and statutory rights are hereby restored.
Some members of Legislature attended the hearing of the Ruling and they are Senator Gble-Bo Brown of Maryland county, Senator Boto Kanneh of Gbarpolu County, former senator Commany B. Wesseh of RiverGee County, former Representative Josephine Francis and several others.
During the argument on July 16,2024, state prosecutors told the Supreme Court that they Convicted Justice Scott on Circumstantial Evidence From the line of questioning by justices of the Supreme Court clearly indicate that the life imprisonment imposed against former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members will be reversed.
The jury of CriminalCourt’C in last year unanimously pronounced Justice Scott and her co-defendants guilty of allegedly using a kitchen knife to stab Charloe Musu to death. Based on the jury’s verdict, Judge Roosevelt Willie immediately sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment, despite the defendants challenging the judge’s decision, and appealed against it to the highest court, which appeal arguments was held on Tuesday,July 16.
During the arguments, Cllr. Bobby Livingstone, lead government lawyer who pressed for the conviction of former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members told the justices that the state case was based on circumstantial evidence.
While arguing for nearly three hours Cllr. Livingstone repeated that “our case theory was based on circumstantial evidence since defendants failed to point out who did the killing.”
Circumstantial evidence is indirct evidence that does not, on its face, prove a fact in issue but gives rise to a logical inference that the fact exists. At that point, Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh asked Cllr. Livingstone whether all of the defendants took the knife at the same time to stab Charloe Musu to death.
Further to that, Associate Justice Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie pressed Cllr. Livingstone to explain if the defendants use separate knives to stab Charloe Musu.
“It was by circumstantial evidence that we indicted all of the defendants,” Cllr. Livingstone replied to the justices concerned about who actually stabbed Charloe Musu to death These responses prompted the justices to establish that prosecution case was based on presumption and assumption and not on prime facies evidence.
But Cllr Livingstone contended that there was no intruder discovered during the commission of the crimes, as being allege by the defendants.
Again, the justices asked Cllr. Livingstone to clarify whether the Liberian pathologist Dr. Benedict Kolee DNA Analysis link any of the defendants to the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy and making false statement to law enforcement officer, as they were charged.
When asked by Justice Yamie Gbeisay, what makes him to believe that all of the defendants committed the crime including Rebecca Yonder Winser? For Justice Yussif Kaba, his question was why the police charge sheet or indictment did not point out each role played by the defendants?
According to Kaba, the government lawyers rush in prosecuting the case without doing in-depth investigations or going beyond the police reports. “I don’t know why you went to prosecute? I’m confused and I’m still waiting to hear on what evidence you use to prosecute those people?” Kaba asked.
Providing suggestion, Kaba said, the prosecutors was to investigate whether there was any quarrel among the family prior to the incident.
Livingstone could not directly answer the concerns raised by the justices during the arguments, which presupposes that Justice Scott and her co-defendants life imprisonment could be overturn.
Impeached Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh that argued on behalf of the defense answering to a question whether the state establish a prima facie case against the defendants to warrant the entry of a judgment of conviction against them?
Cllr. J’aneh replied was “the state lawyers did not present one single eye witness to the perpetration of the crime of murder as alleged in the indictment.” According to Ja’neh, they proceeded to prove their case, but failed to do so, beyond a reasonable doubt on the strength of conflicting forensic and circumstantial evidence adduced during the trial.
Justice Ja’neh also argued that the Liberian pathologist is a clinical psychologist and not a forensic pathologist. He furthered argied that the DNA analysis should pointed out the perpetrator of the crime
“Dr. Benedict Kolee who is the government pathologist admitted that he discovered male dna chromosome but he said it was very small which he thinks didn’t contribute to the commission of the crimes.”