The Guyana Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a 28-year sentence on a man who killed an East La Penitence woman in 2006.
Dennis Wharton was sentenced in 2013 after he had pleaded guilty to manslaughter after initially being indicted for murder. The charge alleged that during the month of November 2006 at East La Penitence Squatting Area, he killed June Osborne.
When the case was called at the appellate court in Georgetown, it was noted that Wharton had appealed his sentence contending that it was an excessive one. However Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal, Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud dismissed Wharton’s appeal.
The judges noted that the sentence was not excessive given the circumstances of the case. The court also found that the trial judge did not err in principle in imposing the sentence. The appellate judges also pointed to the severity of the injuries the deceased suffered.
In 2013 Wharton was tried before then Justice Roxane George and sentenced to 28 years in prison. During the trial, the accused had stated that he and Osborne had shared a relationship. However a probation report which was presented to the court prior to his sentencing stated otherwise.
The woman was found with one of her arms severed and it appeared as if she was killed during a robbery. Osborne’s body was found by her daughter hidden under a zinc sheet at the back of her yard and the home had been ransacked.
