MONROVIA – Former Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott and three other members of her family have pleaded “not guilty”, as the trial of the murder case of young Charloe Musu got underway Monday, 28, 2023.
Charloe, who was stabbed multiple times in various parts of her body, was gruesomely murdered on the fateful night of 22 February 2023, at her Brewerville, Virginia family residence allegedly by an unidentified assailant, according to initial reports released by family members of the deceased.
But, on 23 June 2023, the Special Grand Jury for Montserrado County, filed in the First Judicial Circuit Criminal Assizes “A” for Montserrado County, sitting in its May Term of court, A.D. 2023, before Resident Judge, Roosevelt Z. Willie, an indictment against Cllr. Scott and three other codefendants; Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson, and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, levying on them multiple charges including murder.
The four ladies, who are charged with Murder, Criminal Conspiracy, and False Reports to Law Enforcement Officials, have since been remanded behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison until Monday, when they appeared in court and the Clerk of Criminal Court ‘A’ at the Temple of Justice, on Capitol Hill, Monrovia, formally read out the 7-page three counts indictment against them.
Upon the reading of the indictment, the accused, Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson, and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner entered a plea of not guilty, to the alleged crimes of Murder, Criminal Conspiracy, and False Reports to Law Enforcement Officials.
The not-guilty plea by Cllr. Scott and the three other co-defendants means the onus is now upon state lawyers to prove beyond all reasonable doubts that the accused are guilty as charged.
A motion for change of venue from Monrovia to another county, filed by state lawyers was denied by Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie, after defense counsels counter-argued that the motion was a ploy of delay-tactics on the part of the prosecuting legal team and if granted would have amounted to the waste of resources.
Judge Willie had earlier denied a motion filed by the defendants’ legal team, seeking re-visitation of the crime scene, and the conduct of another autopsy on the remains of the deceased, Charloe Musu.
A 12-member jury selection was carried out in open court and the trial was rescued for today, 29 August 2023.
Meanwhile, the indictment drawn up against the four women, in violation of Title 25, Chapter 14, Section 14.1, Chapter 10, Section 10.4, and Chapter 12, Section 12.33 of The New Penal Law of the Republic of Liberia, Cllr. Gloria Musu-Scott, Getrude Newton, Alice Johnson, and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner allegedly committed the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy and false reports to law enforcement officials.
In count-one of the indictment, state prosecutors claim that at about 10pm on 22 February 2023, Defendants Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, Getrude Newton, Alice Johnson, and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner, with criminal minds and intent, armed with a sharp instrument believed to be a knife and pepper spray, willfully, intentionally, purposely, and maliciously inflicted several bodily injuries on the person of Charloe Musu, including her chest, right hand, left thigh, and left armpit, which the indictment says led to her death, thereby committing the crime of murder.
The indictment aver that in an attempt to cover up the truth of what transpired in the house on the day of Charloe’s demise, the Defendants decided to concoct a story that an unknown man entered the house and stabbed the deceased to death.
However, state prosecutors alleged in the indictment that to the contrary, it was the Defendants who murdered the deceased after they were involved in an altercation, evidenced by what the indictment pointed out as the outlook of the room when investigators appeared on the crime scene, which is the Lower Virginia home of ex-Chief Justice Scott.
the indictment, among other things, maintains that the autopsy report establishes that Charloe Musu’s death was violently executed and that she was stabbed nine times on her chest, right hand, left armpit, and left thigh and that her face was peeled indicating that the injuries were inflicted by a sharp object.
