Thirty-five-year-old Melissa Cylus has been freed of a manslaughter charge, more than six years after her common-law husband, Julian Anthony Reberio, was found dead at their Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD) home.
Cylus, who had been accused of unlawfully killing Reberio, faced a jury trial before Justice Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at the High Court in Demerara. She had formally pleaded not guilty on June 3, 2025, with the trial set to begin two days later.
However, on Wednesday, Justice Isaacs-Marcus upheld a no-case submission made by her attorneys, Travis Ferreira and Yuborn Allicock, effectively ending the trial before it could begin.
The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable jury, properly directed, could convict Cylus of the offence. As a result, she was acquitted and released.
A no-case submission is a legal argument made by the defence at the close of the prosecution’s case, asserting that the evidence presented is so deficient or lacking in proof that there is no case for the accused to answer.
If the judge agrees, the case is dismissed without the need for the defence to present any evidence or for the jury to deliberate. The charge against Cylus stemmed from a May 13, 2018 incident, in which 32-year-old Reberio reportedly died following a domestic altercation.
At the time, Cylus was five months pregnant. She was later granted $200,000 bail following her first court appearance. A post-mortem examination revealed that Reberio died from asphyxiation due to compression injuries to the neck, findings consistent with strangulation.
Police subsequently ruled his death an unlawful killing. The prosecution team in the case was led by State Counsel Marisa Edwards, along with Praneta Seeraj and Mtumika Lumumba.
