Nagirinya case: Court assessors to give opinion next week

Court assessors in the murder trial of six people accused of killing a former social worker Maria Nagirinya and her driver are expected to give their opinion next Tuesday.

The assessors are Ms Sharp Mutoni and Mr Simon Okongo.

While briefing the assessors yesterday ahead of the rendering of their opinion next week, presiding Judge Isaac Muwata, asked them to analyse all the evidence of the 21 prosecution witnesses and also the defence before coming up with their opinion.

“From the evidence on record the only contentious issue is the participation, consider the evidence of prosecution witness nine (PW 9) an accomplice who participated in the commission of the alleged offences and testified against the accused persons. His evidence requires corroboration with some other independent evidence.”

An assessor is an ordinary person residing in the area of the court, who is called upon to aid court in a case.

Assessors do not have special training.

They sit with the judge during the entire hearing and listen to all the evidence presented and at the end of the session, render their lay man’s opinion on whether to convict or acquit the accused based on their analysis.  Their opinion is not binding to the judge, as the judge can depart from it.

The accused persons face six counts of murder, kidnap and aggravated robbery of Nagirinya, a former employee of Community Integrated Development Initiative, and her driver, Ronald Kitayimbwa.

The judge also asked the assessors to critically look at the evidence of the CCTV footage tendered in court if it squarely links the accused to participation in the crime and if the person seen driving the motor vehicle was rightly identified given the time and light.

The judge also guided the assessors to consider all the denials of the key suspect Coporiyamu Kasolo, alias Arsenal, where he claimed that he didn’t know his co-accused including his conduct after the alleged commission of the offence, the call data report, possibility that two boda boda suspects would have been ordinary boda riders with no knowledge of what was going on.