Kasoa ritual murder case: Court orders lawyers to file addresses by March 14

An Accra High Court has ordered the lawyers in the Kasoa teenager’s murder case to file their addresses by March 14, 2024.

The order came after the prosecution led by Nana Adomah Osei, an Assistant State Attorney, ended the cross-examination of the 18-year-old teenager (the second accused person) in the matter.

Meanwhile, defence counsel, Lawrence Boampong, who held brief for Martin Kpebu, for the second accused person, told the court that they would not be calling witnesses.

According to Boampong, the only witness, the second accused had, was his grandfather, but he had passed.

The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, therefore, ordered the lawyers in the matter to file their addresses.

According to the court, the lawyers must file soft copies of the addresses via e-mail.

The court is expected to sum up the matter afterwards.

The two teenagers are standing trial for allegedly killing 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah in April 2021 at Kasoa.

They have been charged with conspiracy and murder.

Answering questions under cross-examination administered by Nana Adomah Osei, the 18-year-old second accused person denied that he had bragged that he was going to purchase a Range Rover vehicle a week before the murder of Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, the victim.

“I never went to any London Bar in Weija with the first accused person and bragged that I will soon buy a Range Rover very soon. I have never sat with the first accused person to discuss about any money ritual.”

The 18-year-old denied that he and the 15-year-old first accused person had stolen GHC1,200 from the first accused’s father and spent it.

He said it was not true that he was arrested for possessing narcotic substances and pardoned by the then District Commander at Kasoa because he was a minor.

The second accused person explained that he had issues with the Police at Kasoa because he fought with one Shasha, a Rastafarian and that it was not true that he was involved in “constant social vices” in his area.

He also denied that he and the 15-year-old juvenile offender “agreed and acted together to kill 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah”.

“I know nothing about what you are saying. I have not thought of committing such a crime with the first accused person,” the second accused told the court.

The 18-year-old denied that he had confessed to the Police that he hit the victim’s head with the handle of a pickaxe and the first accused person smashed the victim’s head with a cement block.

“I know nothing about what you have said. If I struck the victim with the pickaxe’s handle, he (the deceased) would have mentioned my name, not the first accused person’s. I was advised by one Agyeman to confess to “hitting the head of the victim to avoid being beaten by the Police at the Criminal Investigations headquarters”.

The 18-year-old denied that on April 1, 2021, he gave the 15-year-old minor a handkerchief and a small bottle containing Chlorophyll.

“On that day, the Police officer took us to the crime scene and that was the first time I entered the uncompleted building, and it was there I heard the first accused person telling the Police Officer, I gave him the bottle containing the Chlorophyll which he (first accused person) kept in the building.

“The Police officers searched everywhere, but they found nothing. I have never instructed the first accused person to cover the victim’s nose and mouth with the handkerchief,” the 18-year-old told the court.

The second accused person told the court that if he was involved in the killing of the victim, he would not have gone to the deceased father’s house to assist him.

The second accused person denied that the first accused person dug a shallow grave with a spade and shovel in the uncompleted building and buried Ishmael while he was breathing.

He denied that he covered the deceased with sand and placed a block over it, although the victim was breathing.