By Alieu Amara Suwu
N’tuma Mansaray, a State Registered Nurse (SRN) who was allegedly accused of killing her military husband, Mamoud Mansaray, at Murray Town barracks, was on Monday, March 11, 2024, acquitted and discharged of murder by Justice Suliaman Bah at the High Court in Freetown.
This came after eight members of the jury out of ten who were judges of fact in the matter returned with a not guilty verdict in respect of the accused.
The accused, N’tuma Mansaray nee Bangura, was standing trial for the past three years on one count of murder, contrary to law.
According to the indictment, the accused murdered Mamoud Mansaray on March 30, 2020, at Murray Barracks in Freetown.
The matter was prosecuted by state counsel Umu Sumaray, and lawyer Charlie Isreal Williams was defending the matter.
Before the final verdict, the ten-man jury, after listening to the summation by the judge, retired to their seats to discuss the matter, and upon their return, the first man of the jury said they were not unanimous in their decision, adding that six of the jury found N’tuma Mansaray not guilty of the offense of murder and the fourth jury found her guilty.
Justice Bah said this agreement is not good, and the first man of the jury asked the judge to explain to them again the offenses of manslaughter, provocation, and self-defense, saying that these were the areas they were finding difficult to understand, which is why their decisions were not unanimous.
After explaining to them again those offenses, the juries retired again to discuss them, and upon their return, the foreman informed the learned judge that eight of the juries found N’tuma Mansaray not guilty of the offense of murder, while the other two found her guilty.
Justice Bah then said that the majority carried out the decision. He said, thus, pursuant to Section 203(4) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1965, Act No. 32 of 1965, the majority decision stood, and based on that section, he acquitted and discharged N’tuma Mansaray for the offense of murder.
Before passing his verdict, Justice Bah, in his summing up, said N’tuma Mansaray was arraigned before the court on a count of murder contrary to law.
He stateHe stated that according to the indictment, N’tuma Mansaray unlawfully killed Mamoud Mansaray on Monday, March 30, 2020.
He said the prosecution, to prove their case against the accused, called ten witnesses to testify in court, including the government pathologist, Dr. Someone Owizz Koroma, who said that the deceased died out of four stabbed wounds.
Justice Bah further stated that the deceased also died due to hemorrhagic shock, according to the cause of death certificate.
He said all the other witnesses said that when they entered the house during the incident, they saw the deceased lying on the floor, and N’tuma Mansaray was lying on top of him.
Justice Bah, in continuation of his summing up, said that N’tuma Mansaray, in her testimony in court, said that she is a state-registered nurse attached to the Lumley hospital.
She said the deceased Mamoud Mansaray is her husband, living together at Murray Town barracks, and they are blessed with a girl child.
He said in 2020 she was admitted to the College of Medicine together with the deceased, and they fell in love and got married.
The learned judge continued that N’tuma, in her statement further, said that two years after their marriage, the deceased started misbehaving: sleeping out, and she usually received calls from girlfriends of the deceased insulting her.
The judge further said that N’tuma informed the court that whenever she talked to the deceased about his misbehavior, he beat her, but she decided not to speak about it again, hoping he would change.
Madam Mansaray further stated in her statement that at one point in time, the deceased was having issues with the Ministry of Health as a result of issuing fake nursing certificates to nurses and collecting money from them. She added that he was detained at the Youyi building police post, and she pleaded on his behalf and stood as surety for him when given bail.
The judge continued that N’tuma, in her testimony, also stated that she had made several complaints to her mother and mother of the deceased about the behavior of the deceased, but he did not change.
She further explained to the court that on the day of the incident, she went to work as usual, and when returning, she collected her daughter from her mother and went home to prepare food for the family.
She said that at 5 p.m. she was at home when two ladies came asking for the deceased, and she told them that the husband was not at home.
She further told the court that the deceased had to pay them for issuing fake nursing certificates to them. She told them to report the matter at the Cockril headquarters, and they left.
She said that after the ladies left, she then called the deceased on his phone and expressed her dissatisfaction about what the ladies said, and the deceased threatened to kill her when he got home.
N’tuma Mansaray, in further evidence, informed the court that when the deceased arrived at home, he was hot-tempered, and she closed the door before him, preventing him from entering the house since that was what she always did when they had quarrels, until he got cool—an expectation she thought would have happened.
Later, she said she was inside when she heard the deceased asking for scissors to open the door, and after a while, the deceased broke the door and gained access to the house. He claimed the deceased abused and beat her. He went to the kitchen and took a bread knife. He advanced to stab me but pushed, and he fell with a pierced body.
She called the neighbors for help, and they took the deceased to the hospital while both of them were crying for help.
She was taken to the Congo Cross police station and detained. There she was when she later got the news that the husband was dead.
After reading the statements of the accused in court, the learned judge said that exhibit F was tendered in court, which is the WhatsApp messages and audios retrieved from the deceased and N’tuma Mansaray phones, where the deceased on several occasions used abusive language on N’tuma Mansaray and promised to end her life, and N’tuma Mansaray also responded that she would also end his miserable life. The learned judge continued on exhibit G 1-106. He explained several happenings and therefore said this could be a means of self-defense.
The accused has been in jail for over four years since the inception of the matter.
Lawyer Charlie Israel Williams was defending her.
