Captain, crew member and transport official charged with murder over deadly Guyana ferry sinking

What this source establishes

RESOLVES THE COUNT. Dexter Todd, quoted directly: "We know so far that the disclosure is that 72 bodies were recovered and so they were charged for all 72 of those deaths." This is the only explanation in any source surveyed of what the 72 counts correspond to — one count per recovered body, on the prosecution's disclosure as relayed by defence counsel. "Police charged 40-year-old captain Kevin Price, 42-year-old chief mate Rondell Dwayne Roberts, and 33-year-old Delon Granderson, the loading superintendent at the Transport and Harbours Department, with a total of 72 counts of murder." The 72 is a joint total.

Key claims

• RESOLVES THE COUNT. Dexter Todd, quoted directly: "We know so far that the disclosure is that 72 bodies were recovered and so they were charged for all 72 of those deaths." This is the only explanation in any source surveyed of what the 72 counts correspond to — one count per recovered body, on the prosecution's disclosure as relayed by defence counsel.
• "Police charged 40-year-old captain Kevin Price, 42-year-old chief mate Rondell Dwayne Roberts, and 33-year-old Delon Granderson, the loading superintendent at the Transport and Harbours Department, with a total of 72 counts of murder." The 72 is a joint total across the three, not per accused.
• Captain Price's courtroom words: "I don't deserve this, Father God. Father God, you answer my prayers this morning, answer my prayers, Father God. I don't deserve this, please."
• [ALLEGATION — assertion by an accused person] Price: "Everybody know that's an 87-year-old vessel. The vessel got a lot of issues. The vessel don't have a radar. The vessel don't have a search-and-rescue transponder." He claimed the problems had been known since 2022.
• Todd states the prosecution's theory is overloading: "We listened to the prosecution narrate the facts in relation to why they were charged and who has what responsibility and that the boat was overloaded."
• Todd sets that against the minister: "We had the minister who is responsible for transport and harbours come out on public television and say that the boat was not overloaded, and that was so pronounced."
• Todd: "The police have now done what the Commission of Inquiry is supposed to do and they have already come to a definitive conclusion on this matter," and "The complexity of this matter, you could not have completed an investigation in this matter in such a short time."
• Todd on the COI: "The primary person who will have to talk is the captain of the vessel, who would have to appear before the COI. Now this man is in prison and that is what they hope to do, to drag him from prison in bangles and shackles before a COI."

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