Superintendent of Prisons among six charged with ‘Smallie’ escape

A total of six persons, including a Superintendent of Prisons and his second-in-command, were remanded to prison on Thursday after they were charged with aiding convicted killer and death row inmate, Mark Royden Williams to escape from the Mazaruni Prison on May 19.

Those charged have been identified as Rajmohan Autor called ‘Chico’, 48, a businessman of Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); Frangeliz Jugandry Flores Perez, 28, a Venezuelan national of Kitty, Georgetown; Omar Witherspoon, 26 of Stanleytown, New Amsterdam, Berbice; Conroy Hosannah, 35 of East Canje, Berbice; Oldfield Romulus, 50, of Victoria Cumberland Village, East Canje, Berbice and Alexander Hopkinson, 59 of Bartica Housing Scheme.

Hopkinson is the Superintendent of Prisons at the Mazaruni Prisons while Romulus is the second-in-charge.

The News Room was reliably informed that they were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony, contrary to section 34 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:01.

They appeared at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court and bail was denied; the case was adjourned to June 22, 2023.

Perez is the woman who visited Williams at the prison shortly before the daring daylight escape.

Hopkinson was represented by attorney Bernard DaSilva while Hosannah and Witherspoon were represented by attorney Patrice Henry and Romulus by attorney Eusi Anderson.

The other two accused were unrepresented.

Williams called ‘Smallie’, in a daring daylight ordeal and assisted by men with high-powered weapons, escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on May 19. This is the country’s maximum security penitentiary.

A day later, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) announced a $10 million reward for any information that can lead to Williams’ arrest.

The convicted mass murderer escaped while being escorted back from a visit with the aid of heavily armed accomplices in a speedboat. The escort party was fired upon with AK-47 automatic rifles by men inside the boat alongside the Mazaruni River.

The boat and its occupants, including Williams, proceeded upstream, past Itaballi landing, while Prison guards and Police in support undertook pursuit.

Williams was convicted of murders stemming from the Bartica massacre in 2008, when he, along with other gunmen, ambushed and killed twelve (12) persons, including three (3) policemen. Additionally, he had been sentenced to death in September last year over the killing on January 23rd, 2008, of Guyana Defence Force member Corporal Ivor Williams.

Royden Williams had previously escaped from the Camp Street Prison on July 09, 2017, but was recaptured on October 10, 2017, on the Weldaad Public Road, West Coast Berbice.