Murder accused Christopher Singh and Devendra Bushram, on trial for the fatal stabbing of a fan after a cricket match in 2010, were sentenced to a combined 116 years in jail after being found guilty yesterday.
Singh was sentenced to 66 years and co-accused Bushram was sentenced to 50 years by Justice Navindra Singh, who handed down the sentences after a 12-member jury returned a guilty verdict at the High Court.
Both men were stunned by the decision and Singh later flew into a fit of rage afterward.
The two men were charged with the murder of 23-year-old Javed Mohamed, of 636 Best Plantation, West Coast Demerara.
Mohamed had left his home to attend a floodlights cricket match with some friends at Better Hope, East Coast of Demerara. After the match, Mohamed was headed back home when he was robbed, brutally beaten and fatally stabbed by the two men.
Despite evidence by a witness implicating the two men, Singh yesterday continued to deny any involvement in the murder. “I didn’t kill nobody,” he stated when asked if he had anything to say to the court before his sentencing.
His lawyer, George Thomas, however, pleaded with the court to be lenient with him and to consider that he was only 17-years-old and under the influence of alcohol on the night of the crime.
Singh dropped back into the prisoner’s dock as Senior State counsel Judith Gildharie-Mursalin asked the court to show him the same mercy he showed Mohamed on the night of the murder.
“I think I know what happened….y’all had an argument…and you got hot…but you see where it ended up?” Justice Singh later told him.
But Singh denied the murder again.
“…You stand here and you say you don’t know what happened?” Justice Singh questioned, before handing down his sentence. He deducted four years for the time the man spent on remand.
Bushram quickly pleaded with Justice Singh to be lenient with him in handing down what he called “justice.”
He said he was trying to change his life during his time in prison and accepted that the jury found him guilty. “I’m asking you to be lenient with me when you are passing your judgment down Mr. Singh,” he said.
“Everyone deserves a second chance… people make mistakes in life and they deserve a chance,” he pleaded. His lawyer Raymond Ali also begged the court to be lenient since his client had “shown some amount of remorse.”
Justice Singh sentenced him to 50 years imprisonment after deducting six years because he did not inflict the fatal blow and another 4 years for the time spent on remand.
“Mr. Singh, you locking me away from society?” Bushram asked in shock.
“You locked Javed Mohamed permanently from society…,” Justice Singh replied.
At that moment Christopher Singh flew into a fit of rage and spat on Ali’s head. He pulled off his tie and dashed it at the jurors, while cursing the policemen who tried to control him. Both of them were escorted out of the courtroom and into a prisoner’s van.
Over 20 family members of Mohamed turned up for the verdict and all of them had his picture pinned to their chest. “We came for justice and justice was served,” one of them said.
Mohamed’s mother stated that she was satisfied with the verdict and it was only possible because of the state attorney. “The jury did a good job and if it wasn’t for the prosecutor we wouldn’t have gotten this satisfaction,” she said, before bursting into tears.
Meanwhile, as the policemen were escorting Christopher Singh and Bushram along the court’s corridor, Singh started to curse Bushram. “You will see what I will do to you.
You make me get jail for this and he give me 66 years! Wait! Y’all better keep him far away from me or I will kill him,” he said, shaking in anger, while pushing the police away.
His sister was seen pleading with him to calm down. But he kept saying, “sixty-six years?!”
