Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and three family members: Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, have all been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Judge of Criminal Court “A”, Roosevelt Z. Willie, after being found guilty for murder, criminal conspiracy and raising false alarm to law enforcement officers.
The sentencing of the defendants came following the Ministry of Justice’s pre-sentence investigation of the defendants and accord due consideration to a written report that the defendants have been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment.
Judge Willie, in his judgement on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, upheld the jurors’ majority “guilty verdict”, and underscored that murder is a capital offense and the penalty thereof is either death or life imprisonment. However, Judge Willie stated that because Liberia signed an international treaty that forbids death penalty, he was left with the only option to sentence the convicts to a maximum of life imprisonment.
On June 12, 2023, defendants Scott, Newton, Johnson and Wisner were charged by the Special Grand Jury of Montserrado for murder, criminal conspiracy and giving a false alarm to police officers.
According to the charge, “The defendants’ actions violated Title 26, chapter 14, section 14.1; Chapter 10, section 10.4; and Chapter 12, section 12.33 of the new penal law of Liberia.”
According to the indictment, on February 22, 2023, at about 10:00 p.m., Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson, and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, “with criminal intent, armed themselves with a sharp instrument believed to be a knife and pepper spray. They willfully, intentionally, purposely, and maliciously inflicted several bodily injuries on Charlotte Musu, including her chest, right hand, left thigh, and left armpit, leading to her death and thereby committing the crime of murder.”
However, they all pleaded not guilty to charges against them. The defense lawyers said the defendants were wrongly accused of a crime they knew nothing about, and that the state had failed to go after the main perpetrators and to adduce evidence beyond all reasonable doubt.
But the prosecution noted that its evidence and the circumstances surrounding the incident clearly show that Defendant Scott and three others are liable for the death of the late Charloe Musu.
The final argument, which drew the presence of key government officials, saw a majority guilty verdict.
Eleven of the jurors voted for a guilty verdict, and one voted for a not-guilty verdict. In their verdict, they said, “We, the trial jurors in the case, after careful consideration of the evidence, hereby carefully agree that the defendants are hereby judged guilty of the crime of murder, criminal conspiracy and raising a false alarm to law enforcement officers.”
Meanwhile, the defense team has announced an appeal to the Supreme Court with the aim of taking advantage of the law.
