Guyanese Yashoda Ramlal last week told a Connecticut, US court that she heard a “pop” and saw her ex-fiance and murder accused Parasurama `Andrew’ Rabindranauth stuffing a gun into his sweatshirt.
Parasurama, a Guyanese, is on trial for the murder of another Guyanese, Michael Sembhudyal on January 3rd of last year in Connecticut following a dispute over real estate.
He was arrested in Miami five days after the shooting by multiple law enforcement agents, who took him into custody before he could board a Guyana-bound plane.
According to the online publication Republican-American, Ramlal told the court that she heard a “pop” while she stood in a third-floor bedroom of her family’s Baldwin Street, Westbury, Connecticut home.
She said he looked into the kitchen, saw her cousin, Sembhudyal with a look of shock on his face and saw her ex-fiancé, Rabindranauth, stuffing a silver gun into the pocket of his sweatshirt.
“I saw him stumble into the living room, then I saw the blood,” she said of Sembhudyal, according to Republican-American.
She was testifying in the Waterbury Superior Court during the first day of Rabindranauth’s murder trial. The 28-year-old faces decades in prison if convicted.
Meanwhile, in later testimony, two firearm experts testified that they had never dealt with a murder case involving the type of bullet that was used to kill Sembhudyal.
According to Republican American, Lt. Joseph Rainone, a firearms expert who works for the Waterbury Police Department, testified that the bullets found in Rabindranauth’s home and in the gun recovered by police were “reloads.” The report said that Rainone testified that the manufacturer collects empty cartridges then repacks them with gun powder, primer and a bullet.
The bullets are typically used for target practice, as the holes they make in paper targets are easier to see, he told the court.
Reports were that Rabindranauth, a Guyanese citizen living in the country legally for the past 10 years, dated Sembhudyal’s cousin for six years. The two eventually split up, which led to an ongoing dispute.
On the night of the murder he argued with his ex-girlfriend and her cousin, who were living at a three-family home over a piece of real estate and money that had been spent on it.
The reports said that according to the assessor’s records, the homes of Rabindranauth and Sembhudyal are both owned by Khemraj Ramlal.
He argued with the two on the phone and at about 10:30 pm he visited the home and was let inside to continue the argument. That altercation escalated and eventually turned deadly when Rabindranauth allegedly fatally shot Sembhudyal once in the chest, police said.
Following the shooting, Rabindranauth allegedly drove to Naugtauck, where he ditched his SUV at a gas station and he then drove with a relative to Queens, New York and while there a cousin let him take a black Chevrolet Malibu.
From New York, he boarded a bus that eventually took him to Miami. According to police, his getaway plan almost worked, but when he purchased a plane ticket for the flight, detectives were alerted and were waiting for him at the airport.
