Dellon Gordon who was sentenced to 83 years in jail for killing his wife, who died after being set ablaze, had his sentence reduced by the Guyana Court of Appeal last Friday to 21 years commencing from his conviction in 2014.
Stabroek News understands from his attorney Dexter Todd that the appellate court agreed with submissions he had made on behalf of his client that the sentence was excessive.
Todd indicated that the court ordered that the six years from 2014 to 2020 be deducted, which means that Gordon will serve a remainder of just about 14 years.
While the court reduced his sentence, however, his conviction for the capital offence remained.
The court’s ruling was delivered virtually.
On October 15th, 2014, Gordon was found guilty by a jury for the 2011 murder of his wife— mother of three Natasha Johnson, who succumbed in hospital to the burns she sustained in the fire.
Following his conviction, Justice Navindra Singh imposed an 83-year jail sentence, with a minimum of 50 years to be served before the possibility of parole.
Gordon subsequently appealed both his conviction and sentence contending among other things, that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable and could not be supported having regard to the evidence.
Additionally, he argued that the judge misdirected the jury on matters of fact and that he failed to give a balanced summing up of the case to the jury.
Gordon was of the view also that the trial judge did not deal adequately with the discrepancies or conflict raised by the evidence.
Gordon had set the house on fire with himself, Johnson and their one-year-old child inside. Johnson’s two other children were also locked in the house.
In handing down his sentence, Justice Singh had told Gordon that his was one of the most brutal cases he had dealt with.
The judge thereafter commenced the sentence at a base of 60, adding five years for premeditation, 10 years for exceptional brutality, six years because it was domestic abuse, and five years because children were in the house.
Three years were, however, deducted from the sentence for the time Gordon had spent in prison up to that point, awaiting trial.
The court had heard at the trial that Gordon climbed through a window, went into the kitchen and emptied kerosene into a bowl which he took into the bedroom and tossed on Johnson before throwing a lighter on her.
One of the woman’s neighbours had testified to seeing Johnson run out of the house covered in flames screaming, “Dellon! Why you do this to me!”
The matter was presided over by acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire and Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory.
The State’s case was presented by Prosecutor Teshana James-Lake.
