Taijpaul Nankishore, who was indicted for the May 2008 murder of his brother, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter yesterday.
Justice Winston Patterson will hear a probation report on February 10, following which he will sentence Taijpaul, 32, called “Fatboy.”
Taijpaul admitted that on May 7, 2008, at Foulis, East Coast Demerara, he killed his younger brother Seepaul Ramesh Nankishore, following an argument over a $60 card game.
Taijpaul was charged with his brother’s murder days after the incident and he was later committed to stand trial in the High Court following the completion of a preliminary inquiry.
Earlier this week, a mixed jury was empanelled for the Nankishore murder trial. However, yesterday afternoon the man entered a guilty plea for the lesser count of manslaughter.
Prosecutors Judith Gildharie-Mursalin and Konyo Sandiford presented the state’s case while attorney Clarissa Riehl represented the accused.
The facts of the case state that Taijpaul assaulted and then stabbed his brother to the neck with a broken bottle. Taijpaul and the deceased Seepaul were drinking together and playing a card game. An argument later started between the brothers over a $60 bet. Seepaul, according to reports, hit Taijpaul who in turn picked up a rum bottle and hit him in the head. The bottle broke and the man then used the sharp implement to stab his brother to the neck.
In a post-mortem report, government pathologist Nehaul Singh said that Seepaul died from shock and hemorrhaging due to an incised wound to the neck. The wound, the report said, was caused by a curved object.
There were no eyewitnesses to the murder but Taijpaul had admitted in a caution statement given to police that he and his brother were drinking and that an argument started up over the $60 bet. He had further admitted to police that his brother hit him and he retaliated. Defence attorney Riehl described the case as being very tragic. She told the court that her client has had a hard life. When Taijpaul was five-years-old, the attorney reported, his father left his mother and the woman was left to support him, his now dead brother and an older sister. The man’s mother, according to Riehl, did domestic work to support the family. The Nankishores, she further said, are not an educated family and none of them can read and write.
Riehl further told the court that she had never seen someone who was more insistent at pleading guilty. The attorney said that Taijpaul was “stone drunk” at the time of the incident and although she had explained to him that he could win the trial the man still insisted that he wanted to be punished for what he had done and was very remorseful.
The caution statement, the attorney told the court, was taken from her client by force. Riehl stated that police beat her client and he sustained two broken ribs as a result and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for treatment. Riehl said she explained to her client that because he did not give the statement freely and voluntarily, the caution statement would be inadmissible. However, Taijpaul still insisted that he wanted to plead guilty.
The attorney implored Justice Patterson to note that the man has trusting the court with his faith and that some mercy should be given to him.
During his time in prison, she further said, Taijpaul has been attending classes. He is learning to read and write and is a self-taught artist. She also said that he had become a Christian.
