Justice James Bovell-Drakes yesterday sentenced Colin Bentick to 21 years in jail for the murder of Elon Shepherd in 2007 on the West Berbice.
Sitting at the Berbice Assizes, the judge also ordered that prison authorities have the convict examined periodically by a psychiatrist to help with his mental health status and that medication be dispensed accordingly.
It is alleged that on October 31, 2007 at 12.15 pm, Bentick murdered Shepherd, a clothes vendor at Seafield Village, West Coast Berbice.
According to reports, Bentick was said to have “tripped out” and chopped Shepherd about his body before kneeling beside him and “rubbing” the cutlass on his neck until it was completely severed.
Bentick then reportedly walked away calmly with the cutlass in his hand and stood in front of his house where he operated a grocery. Three police officers, who were passing in a car during the incident, were unable to prevent the man from chopping Shepherd.
The ranks drove to the Weldaad Police Station but by the time they returned Shepherd was already dead and headless. The police fired a few shots and Bentick raised his hands in the air and surrendered. The weapon was also recovered. Reports are that Shepherd, called “Fineman” and “Scarlon,” had been under an abandoned house with his assailant and a few other youths, moments before he was brutally hacked to death.
