Travis McDougall was yesterday afternoon convicted for manslaughter in the 2014 killing of businessman Ashok Raghoo, who was fatally shot during a robbery at a traffic light at Vlissengen Road and Regent Street.
McDougall’s sentencing has, however, been deferred to June 12, for the presentation of a probation report, which his attorney requested.
After about three hours of deliberations, the jury unanimously acquitted the man on the capital offence, but by a proportion of 10 to 2 found him guilty on the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Outfitted with handcuffs and shackles, an expressionless McDougall calmly walked out of the courtroom, with a Quran firmly gripped, while his sad relatives trailed the police escorts.
McDougall was initially charged alongside Jermaine Otto, called “Fungus,” who was among 17 prisoners who died in the Camp Street Prison fire last year, with killing the businessman during a robbery on August 18, 2014.
Wife of the deceased, Shirzaydah Raghoo, in her testimony, had identified McDougall as the rider of the bike from which the killer gunman dismounted.
She had told the court she clearly saw the faces of both Mc Dougall and the shooter.
Raghoo had recounted that Ashok, who was a miner, had travelled out from the interior some days before he was killed, and had gone to the Guyana Gold Board, where he uplifted a cheque for $4M.
Thereafter, she said that they went to Citizens Bank, where he cashed the cheque.
She said that on the day in question at about 12.45 pm, they left home together to transact business in the city with the money, which her husband usually transported in a black haversack.
As they drove along Vlissengen Road, the witness recalled her husband bringing their car to a halt at the traffic light, which indicated red at the intersection with Regent Street.
Almost immediately, the woman said, she saw a motorcycle ride up alongside her husband’s window, which was halfway up.
She recalled a man dismounting the cycle and demanding that the bag be handed over. But her husband refused and was shot in the chest by the robber.
Raghoo said the man then turned and shot her in the right foot, when she tried to grab the haversack, which was in the backseat, in a bid to exit the vehicle.
Mc Dougall’s story, however, has been that he had nothing to do with the commission of the offence and that he was elsewhere at the time of the killing.
His caution statement, which was tendered and admitted in evidence, however, said he told police that he had ridden the motorcycle from which Otto, the shooter, had dismounted.
Defence attorney Nigel Hughes had argued that his client never voluntarily gave the statement, but it was rather obtained only after lawmen applied electric shocks to his client’s genitals with a taser.
The court had heard from the statement of McDougall telling police that Otto, whom he knew from school, asked to be dropped off in Kitty.
McDougall said that since he had a motorcycle licence, he decided to transport his friend to Kitty. However, at the traffic light at the intersection of Regent Street and Vlissengen Road, McDougall said, Otto, who was the pillion rider, jumped off the cycle and darted to the Raghoos’ burgundy car.
Thereafter, the court heard from the statement, McDougall said that he heard shots, followed by “Fungus” running back to the motorcycle with a black bag and shouting, “Leh we guh! Leh we guh!”
The statement quoted the convict as telling police that later that night he heard that the driver of the car had died.
Leading his defence in unsworn testimony, however, the convict had told the court that he was innocent of the charge.
His story was that at the time of the shooting, he was at the Jialing store, where he and a relative had taken a motorcycle to be repaired.
He admitted to the court that he did sign a caution statement, but said that it was prepared by the police, and he affixed his signature only after he was beaten and shocked to his genitals by the lawmen.
Shirzaydah, however, remained adamant that McDougall was the rider of the getaway motorcycle on which the shooter arrived.
The couple was robbed of a firearm, a quantity of cash and cellphones, all totaling $4M in total value.
The state’s case presented by Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy.
The case was heard by Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Georgetown.
