A murderous feud between two groups of Guyanese in Schenectady, New York had its finale in a courtroom yesterday when the triggerman was sentenced to 18 years.
The Times Union reported dramatic testimony from the sentencing phase, with the widow of bus mechanic Ganesh Ramgoolam, who was ambushed and gunned down on a city street in 2010, weeping as she demanded answers from his killer and an accomplice about his final moments.
“You intentionally executed him. I think of him falling to the floor. Did he yell? Did he cry? Or did he even have any time for that?” Uneesa Ally told Dhanashar “Tony” Persaud, who hung his head at yesterday’s sentencing. He was slapped with 18 years to life behind bars as part of a negotiated plea for the Feb. 20, 2010 murder outside 935 Maple Ave. Prosecutors had said that murder marked a violent end to a feud between two groups of Guyanese.
The court was told that Ramgoolam was at a party and got involved in a heated conversation on the phone between the Parbhudials and their rivals. He and a friend drove to the Parbuhdial house only to be surrounded and ambushed.
Ramgoolam was hit by bullets from a .22 calibre gun Persaud fired.
“You left him dead on the cold ground, face down. Why? You have destroyed so many lives because of your ignorant actions,” said Ally, 26, according to the Times Union. She told the court how her 24-year-old husband had promised her they would grow old together and that their two children will never know their father. She described him as a “beautiful family-oriented person.”
Their 2-year-old daughter Alyssa joined her mother at the front of the courtroom.
The Times Union said that as Ally held her, she asked the girl “Where’s Daddy?” to which the toddler replied “I don’t know why Daddy is in the air.”
The report said that three of Persaud’s accomplices, siblings Vishan “Anthony” Parbhudial, 23, and 21-year-old Angelene Parbhudial, 21 who are his cousins and her boyfriend, Richard Baliraj, 21, of Queens were sentenced separately yesterday before Visiting Judge Polly Hoye.
Baliraj received 10 years because prosecutors say he fired a round from his AK-47 assault rifle that missed the victim while Vishan and Angelene Parbhudial were sentenced to 7 and 5 years respectively. He had a shotgun but never pulled the trigger and she was armed with a bat, prosecutors said. The defendants’ varying sentences for gang assault were based on the threat they posed to the victim. On Friday, everyone except Angelene apologized and expressed regret to the family, The Times Union report said.
Before Persaud learned his fate, the victim’s mother, Roopmanie Girdharry recounted her pain since her son was killed.
“I have a hole in my heart that will never heal, they take away everything from me,” Girdharry told the court.
The judge described the Parbhudial family as “dysfunctional” and expanded on Ally’s remarks about the ignorance of the plotters.
“Not only was it ignorant, it was absolutely barbaric, a shootout on a city street, laying in wait and then to corner him off to make sure you get the job done,” the judge declared.
The four defendants were ordered to share in paying back the US$4,400 funeral cost and will be on probation for several years after they are released from prison. They also face deportation to Guyana and in Baliraj’s case, Trinidad and Tobago because they are not U.S. citizens.
Another Parbhudial sibling, Adrian, 25, was convicted of numerous criminal charges, the most serious of which was attempted aggravated murder for shooting two cops. He is to be sentenced later. Earlier this month, his mother Omawattie Parbhudial pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution. The woman, who was in court Friday and sobbed loudly during the sentencing, has until June to either pay US$5,000 restitution or serve a year in jail, the Times Union report said.
