The Republic of Liberia, by and through the Ministry of Justice, has finally indicted the former Chief Justice of the Republic, Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, and three of her relatives, Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, for murder, criminal conspiracy and false reports to law enforcement officials.
The indictment, filed by the Special Grand Jury for Montserrado County on Friday, June 23, 2023, implicates Cllr. Scott and the others for murder, criminal conspiracy and false reports to law enforcement officials, in violation of Title 26, Chapter 14, Section 14.1, Chapter 10, Section 10.4, and Chapter 12, Section 12.33 of the New Penal Law of the Republic of Liberia.
Count one of the indictment, murder, explains that “on the 22nd day of February 2023, at about 10:00 p.m., the defendants, Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, with criminal minds and intent, armed with a sharp instrument believed to be a knife, and pepper spray, willfully, intentionally, purposely and maliciously inflicted several bodily injuries on the person of Charloe Musu, including her chest, right hand, left thigh and left armpit, which led to her death, thereby committing the crime of murder.
“It was on the night of February 22, 2023, around the time stated above, after the family had eaten and were all in the house, when the security guards assigned to the home of co-defendant Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, heard crying sound coming from inside the house. As the sound got louder, security guards, Anthony Musu and Zion Tarr, approached the room window of co-defendant Scott and in that process they saw co-defendant Gertrude Newton slid the bathroom window glass of co-defendant Scott, and upon seeing them, she started screaming for help, saying, ‘the people on us in the house!’ Also seen in the bathroom with co-defendant Newton was Charloe Musu, now deceased.”
According to the murder count, “After hearing from co-defendant Gertrude Newton that someone was on them in the house, security guard Zion Tarr left to call security guard Moses Wright, who was their commander, and told him that someone was in the house on the occupants based on what co-defendant Gertrude Newton had told him. When security guards Wright and Tarr returned, they left security guard Anthony Musu at the bathroom window of co-defendant Scott. They went back to co-defendant Wisner’s room, and co-defendant Gertrude Newton came and told Zion Tarr to break the window bar if he had anything to allow them to come outside. As instructed, Mr. Tarr broke the window bar with a cutlass and aided three of the defendants, in persons of Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, to get outside through the window.
“After the three co-defendants came outside, and being very concerned and apprehensive about the alleged armed robber, the security guard, Zion Tarr, decided to remain at the window with his cutlass to see whether the alleged intruder would come outside through that window, since there was no other entry or exit at the time. While standing at the window, some members of the community who jumped over and entered the fence, came to the window where the security guard, Zion Tarr, was standing, and managed to enter the house, through the said window, while the security guard remained on alert at the window for the alleged intruder who never showed up.
The grand jury’s murder count added that “one of the community members, in person of Amara S. Tarwuleh, who entered the house, told police investigators that when he entered the house through one of the back windows, he saw the deceased lying in the bathroom bleeding, and he helped to put her on the back of his friend by the name of OG Prof, who asked co-defendant Scott for the car keys. He further explained that co-defendant Scott gave the keys to his friend, OG Prof, who gave it to one Mulbah. He stated that at that time the whole house was locked so he asked co-defendant Scott for the back door keys and she gave it to him; that is how he opened the back door and helped carried Charloe Musu (now deceased) to the car to be taken to the hospital, and he returned in the house to continue searching for the unknown man who allegedly stabbed the deceased, but was never found.
“In an attempt to cover up the truth about what transpired in the house,” the murder count continued, “the defendants decided to concoct a story that an unknown man entered the house and stabbed the deceased to death; but to the contrary, it was the defendants who murdered the deceased after they were involved in an altercation, evidenced by the outlook of the room when the investigators appeared on the crime scene.”
Count two of the Special Grand Jury’s indictment, criminal conspiracy, explained that “the defendants, with criminal minds and intent to destroy evidence, caused co-defendants Gertrude Newton and Alice Johnson to return to the house on the night of the incident and, upon which time, security guard Zion Tarr saw them carrying away a black bag containing several items, part of which is suspected to be the murder weapon/criminal agency; that it is observed from the facts and circumstances that the defendants changed and concealed the blouse that Charloe Musu (now deceased) was wearing at the time of the violent attack on her person before taking her to the hospital, and also prohibited the investigators from entering a room in the house which was locked by co-defendant Gertrude Newton for several days. Having been compelled by the police investigators to open the room in the presence of co-defendant Gertrude’s lawyers, bloodstains associated with the deceased were found in several parts of the room, along with a torn bra, believed to be that of the deceased.”
Count two maintained that “it was established from the facts and circumstances that the defendants willfully connived, colluded and conspired to murder the deceased after which they connived and conspired to conceal the facts and evidence to the extent that the murder weapon used and the blouse that the deceased was wearing on the night of the incident are yet to be found, thereby committing the crime of criminal conspiracy”.
Count three accused Cllr. Scott and the others of false reports to law enforcement officers after the murder of Charloe Musu when she was allegedly stabbed multiple times to death by the defendants.
According to count three, “The police, having been informed of the occurrence of an alleged armed robbery, rushed to the crime scene, but the defendants were not there. After seven days from the date of the incident, they were not willing to cooperate with police investigation, but rather took to the airwaves and various social media platforms, purportedly claiming that they were attacked by an armed robber. Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, in her effort to conceal the crime and mislead law enforcement officials, granted an interview to media outlets, stating among other things that her family had come under attack from an unknown armed robber and had in fact used pepper spray on the alleged intruder.”
The jury indictment explained that “Co-defendant Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott falsely told police investigators that, on the night of the incident, she awoke to screams, and when she opened her eyes she saw the deceased bleeding and bent over with what appeared to be keys on a string in her hands; that’s how she dragged her in her bathroom, tore the window screen and began to scream through her bathroom window. She further explained that she came back in her room for her phone but she did not find it, it was there and then that she remembered someone had given her a pepper spray which she located among her papers; and that when she was leaving the room she encountered a man at her doorway and she sprayed him in the face. Later, one of the security guards entered the house and she gave him her set of spare keys to open the door, and that is how they carried Charloe Musu (now deceased) outside to be taken to the hospital.
“Co-defendant Gertrude Newton falsely and erroneously told police investigators that the deceased was stabbed in the back by an alleged armed robber when in fact and indeed the multiple wounds inflicted on the deceased were all seen in the front and at the left armpit of the deceased. Furthermore, co-defendant Newton said she had a tussle with the alleged intruder and even took possession of the knife before the intruder retook possession of the knife that he allegedly stabbed Charloe Musu with. She went further to say that she encountered the intruder outside the house and they threw stones at each other. Co-defendant Newton said, ‘When I got outside, I saw the same fellow who I saw in the house standing outside telling me that he came to save me. I said no. The person took rock and started stoning me. I also took rock and stoned him back. While the person and myself were stoning each other, Ma Rebecca Wisner told me not to stone the person, I should come back.
“Co-defendant Alice Johnson falsely told the police investigators that she was sleeping when her sisters, co-defendant Gertrude Newton and deceased Charloe Musu started yelling, and while trying to get off the bed she felt a knife juking her on her side. She said that she started yelling and hid herself behind a barrel and later heard her sister arguing over keys, but she did not see them again.
“Co-defendant Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, also in an effort to mislead the police investigators, falsely told the investigation that she had gone to bed by 6:00 p.m., having had her evening meal, when she later heard a loud voice saying, ‘They are on the oldma’. She also said that she heard co-defendant Newton saying, ‘Burst the iron, burst the iron’, when in fact the iron that she said she heard co-defendant say should be burst was the window bar of the room she was occupying…”
However, the indictment stated that all the information provided by the defendants to the investigation was established to be false, misleading and erroneous based on many contradictions.
“Contrary to the impression by the family that Charloe Musu’s phone got missing on the night of the incident, the deceased phone was taken by co-defendant Alice Johnson and given to co-defendant Gertrude Newton and was being used by Thelma Y. Kollie, a cousin of the deceased; that on the very night of the incident, the victim’s phone number called Cllr. Scott four times (23:06, 8 seconds; 23:07, 50 seconds; 22:53, 46 seconds; and 23:59, 59 seconds) which showed that the phone was still in the possession of the family. This was a diversionary tactic to sway the investigation away from the main suspect. Also, co-defendant Cllr. Scott said on the night of the incident she could not find her phone, which the investigation proved to be false based on the analysis of the call log, as she used the phone that same night after Charloe Musu was taken to the hospital and subsequently pronounced dead.
Count three insisted that Cllr. Scott did not escape through the window during the time of the incident as was widely insinuated; instead, she used the keys to open the door of the living quarters and came outside through the back door after some community dwellers had made their way into the house through the window that co-defendants Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Wisner used to exit the house.
Meanwhile, the Grand Jury for Montserrado County, upon their oath, presented that the defendants did commit the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy and false reports to law enforcement officials, contrary to the form, force and effect of the statutory laws of the Republic of Liberia in such cases against the peace and dignity of the state.