A manhunt is on for a convicted murderer who escaped custody in Guyana. Mark Royden Durant who is also on death row escaped from the Mazaruni Prison on Friday.

The man known as Smallie escaped with the assistance of external persons, the Guyanese police said in a statement.

He was convicted on September 01, 2022, for the murder of a member of the Guyana Defense Force Ivor Williams in 2008

In 2017, he was also sentenced to death on eight counts of murder in the 2008 Bartica massacre. He, however, has appealed both his sentencing and conviction. 

Reports from Guyana indicated that this is not the first time that Williams escaped prison. He escaped during a riot in the jail in July 2017

He was arrested and jailed for killing Kumar ‘Mango Man’ Singh in 2019 but was freed of the 2007 murder after a 12-member jury found him not guilty.