A juror on a murder trial was Monday arrested during the trial of the case at the Koforidua High Court for allegedly demanding an undisclosed sum of money from the relatives of an accused person. The juror, Alfred Teye Tetteh, a worker at the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, was alleged to have approached and demanded the money so that he would influence other jurors for them to give a favourable verdict that would free the accused person. Tetteh, who was part of a seven-member jury sitting on the case, was said to have approached the mother, the sister and the uncle of the accused person after the previous sitting of the trial about two weeks ago. The court ordered his arrest after a State Attorney had told it that the Koforidua office of the Attorney General's Department had received information from the relatives of Richard Kwame Angmortey, the accused person who had been on remand for the past four years, that the juror was demanding the money from them. He was said to have told the relatives of the accused person that if they failed to part with the money, he and other jurors would convict him for murder. Meanwhile, the court has also issued a bench warrant for the arrest of another member of the jury who had remained at large for a long time. At the trial of the case at the Koforidua High Court Monday, the State Attorney, Mr Fred Tetteh, prayed the court, presided over by Mr Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo, to dissolve and re-empanel the jury since "one of the jurors has either been influenced or has allowed himself to be influenced". "To be specific, I personally saw Alfred Teye Tetteh interacting with the relatives of the accused person for a long time at the last adjournment of the case two weeks ago," he told the court. He said the AG’s office received information from the mother, the sister and the uncle of the accused person that the arrested juror had told them the accused person would not receive a favourable verdict if the family failed to give him the money. He said immediately a report was made to the police arrest, investigate and possibly prosecute him. In his submission, counsel for the accused person, Mr. lsaac Mills, agreed with the application of the prosecutor for the jury to be dissolved and a new one empanelled in the interest of peace. He, however, prayed the court to handle the case in chambers. “If the jury is dissolved immediately and a new one empanelled, it will certainly serve as a lesson for others sitting on sensitive criminal cases pending before court," counsel stated. The court, however, refused the application for the case to be heard in chambers, after which it immediately ordered the arrest of the juror, who was handcuffed in the packed court. The arrested juror, who put up an innocent facial expression and never attempted to resist being handcuffed, was whisked away to assist the police in their investigations. "Your job as members of the jury is to assist the court to ensure a speedy and fair trial of cases," the court stated. A new seven-member juror was immediately constituted at the court. Presenting the facts of the case, the prosecutor told the court that about 2p.m. on July 23, 2006, the deceased, Julius Ayiku Teye Kpabitey, 25, was sitting by the roadside at Agormanya, a suburb of Krobo-Odumase, when the accused person told him that someone in a nearby barbering shop was calling him. He said the deceased went to the shop but the barber told him that no one had called him. A quarrel then ensued between the deceased and the accused person when the deceased blamed the accused person of making fun of him. The prosecutor said the deceased picked a knife and chased the accused person to his house, where the accused person stabbed the deceased several times in the body. The deceased was rushed to the Atua Government Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. In his submission, counsel for the accused person said his client had spent four years on remand as a result of the delay on the part of the prosecution. "The accused person should be granted bail, since he has not shown any tendency to flout bail conditions and that the facts of the case as presented by the prosecution do not warrant his continued stay on remand and subsequent conviction, since he only committed the murder in selfdefence," he passionately appealed to the court. The State Attorney, however, opposed the application for bail, saying, "We have diligently been working to produce all witnesses involved in the case." "There has been several adjournments because of the absenteeism of the runaway juror," Mr Tetteh told the court. Responding, the court considered that since the accused person was a young man and a first time offender who had spent four years in custody with hardened criminals, he deserved a bail. The court, therefore; granted bail in the sum of GH¢40, 000 with two sureties. It also asked for the recent passport pictures of the accused person to be deposited with the registrar of the court, while the accused person must report himself twice a week to the Agormanya Police. Source: Daily Graphic