Williamsburg, Corentyne resident Marlon Seetaram who confessed to unlawfully killing his teenage neighbour, who was trying to shield his stepfather from an attack by the convict, was yesterday sentenced to fifteen years by Justice Winston Patterson.
State Prosecutor Dionne Mc Cammon stated that Seetaram who had pleaded guilty to manslaughter was an alcoholic and he had lived at his mother-in- law’s home, which was next door to the 16-year-old boy he had killed, Daneshwar Sookdeo.
On June 17, 2007, Father’s Day, Ravendra Persaud, the stepfather of Sookdeo, was riding his bicycle past Seetaram’s home where the convict was abusing his mother-in-law with a series of expletives.
Persaud rebuked the younger man about his behaviour but Seetaram responded by pulling Persaud off his bicycle and pushing him into a nearby drain, where he held the man’s head under the water.
The teenager, observing the attack, pleaded with Seetaram to release his stepfather. Seetaram was subsequently restrained by a man known as ‘Screw Face’.
However, moments later, Seetaram ran into Persaud’s yard and attacked him, and the teenager attempted to shield his stepfather from the assault.
In the meantime, Seetaram armed himself with a piece of wood which he pulled from a fence and dealt several lashes to the teenager’s head and shoulders before escaping.
The teenager was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was treated and sent home, but he was readmitted hours later when he succumbed to his injuries.
State Counsel Mc Cammon told the court that a post-mortem examination had revealed that the teen’s death was due to shock and haemorrhage and a fractured skull.
Earlier, Defence Counsel Joseph Misir in a mitigation plea had said that drugs and alcohol were fast becoming a major threat to the society. The two evils were now seeping into the once calm pastoral areas, the lawyer noted.
The attorney said that a careful examination of the evidence presented by the prosecution clearly indicated that the real cause of the killing was drugs and alcohol.
The lawyer admitted that his client was consuming alcohol from the early hours that day, which rendered him incapable of knowing what he was doing.
In addition the court was told that the man in the dock was previously sentenced to two years imprisonment on a charge of damage to property. However, the defence attorney pleaded that justice be tempered with mercy.
Summarizing the evidence, Justice Patterson remarked that he had taken into consideration that the convict did not waste the court’s time by pleading guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter, and that two years had been spent as a remand prisoner.
Addressing the prisoner, Patterson described the killing of the teenager as “a stupid and dastardly act.”
He agreed with the lawyers that the combination of drugs and alcohol can be a lethal weapon, “an explosive time bomb.”
Questioning the prisoner about the damage to property case, Seetaram explained that he had a quarrel with his father who had rebuked him about his clothing being left on the clothes line for an extended period. And in a rage he responded by pulling off the garments and setting them afire.
The judge then observed that Seetaram seemed to have an uncontrollable temper, and informed him that the appropriate sentence was twenty-five years, but he would just impose an eighteen-year sentence.
Seetaram then pleaded for mercy and requested a reduction of five years from the sentence, “as prison life hard, your Honour.”
The judge subsequently deducted three years, imposing a fifteen-year sentence, and urged that he make good use of his prison term.
