Almost two years after Jonathan Hernandez was stabbed to death near his Arima home, a 24-year-old man from Caroni appeared in court charged with his murder.
Danny Sankaran, of Kelly Village, appeared before Magistrate Gloria Jasmath in the Arima Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with murdering Hernandez on August 29, 2015.
After he spent several days in police custody without being charged, Sankaran’s lawyers Wayne Sturge and Alexia Romero filed a write of habeas corpus writ calling on homicide detectives to justify his continued detention.
High Court Judge Magagret Mohammed ruled in their favour and ordered police to charge or release their client by last Friday.
Before the deadline had expired, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC gave investigator WPC Alisa Hassanali instructions to charge Sankaran for the crime.
According to reports, around 1 am on the night of the incident, Hernandez, of John Street, Mt Zion, Arima, was walking along Devenish Street with his brother when two men in a car stopped alongside them.
The two men reportedly got out and had a short argument with Hernandez before one of them took out an ice pick and stabbed Hernandez several times. The men returned to their vehicle and drove away. Hernandez’s brother was unharmed.
Hernandez was taken to the Arima District Hospital where he died while undergoing emergency surgery.
Police had been searching for the suspects since the incident and only arrested Sankaran in a bar near his home, two weeks ago.
Sankaran was remanded into prison custody and will reappear in court on September 22.