Journalist murderer stirs court

The appearance of journalist Tyron Browne’s suspected murderer Jonathan Williams stirred Monrovia City Court Tuesday, 24 April, leaving riot police and Court officers struggling to contain a multitude of people, some of whom carried smartphones to capture the accused and his accomplices’ photos.

Magistrate Kennedy Peabody ordered defendant Williams incarcerated at the Monrovia Central Prison Tuesday, after police charged him with murder and turned him over to court along with five other defendants.

According to police, defendant Williams who did not have a lawyer in Court Tuesday had allegedly admitted to murdering journalist Browne on 15 April as an alleged armed robber.

But investigators say journalist Browne was not an armed robber and did not possess any weapon when he visited the defendant’s compound in Duport Road where he got killed.

Four women charged with hindering law enforcement in the same case against defendant Williams, including defendants Massa Kennedy, Joana Brecewer, Edwina Promise Youti and Alice M. Youti were seen weeping continuously in the courtroom.

At the call of the case of hindering law enforcement drawn against the four women, prosecutors requested continuance ( postponement of the case) to allow the women proffer criminal appearance bonds.

But it seemed they could not proffer such bonds immediately and they were later taken in detention at the Monrovia Central Prison pending issuance of such bonds.

Police investigators say they established that defendants Massa Kennedy and Joana E. Brecewer are occupants of one of the apartments in the compound where defendant Williams murdered journalist Browne and allegedly witnessed the crime.

But the charge sheet says all of those that witnessed journalist Browne’s murder including Massa Kennedy, Caesar Kennedy, Joana Brecewer and defendant Williams’ two nieces Alice Youti and Edwina Promise Youti did not report the crime to the police.

Defendant Caesar Kennedy faces separate charges of criminal facilitation to murder and hindering law enforcement, but Caesar’s accomplice Ernest Kermue is still at large.

Police say defendant Caesar and Ernest helped defendant Williams to put late journalist Browne’s corpse in the car which was dumped along the Kingdom Care Road in Duport Road on the night of Sunday, 15 April. 

A wider investigation in the murder case saw former Police Director Col. Chris Massaquoi providing statement to investigators here, following defendant Williams’ alleged testimony that he sought the former police chief’s legal advice on 20 April surrounding the incident. 

The charge sheet says Mr. Massaqoui immediately informed the police through Col. Joseph B. Flomo which led to his (defendant Williams’) arrest that very day, 20 April.

Prior to being murdered, police say journalist Browne was a friend to Edwina Youti and he had visited her several times both day and night at her house in Duport Road which is now the crime scene.

By Winston W. Parley