Former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) coastguards Sherwyn Hart, Deon Greenidge and Devon Gordon are currently challenging the death penalty imposed against them for the 2009 murder of Bartica gold dealer Dweive Kant Ramdass.
At a hearing before the Guyana Court of Appeal yesterday morning lawyers for the men sought, and were granted leave to file what they described as “fresh evidence” pertaining to their clients who have each been sentenced to death.
At the virtual hearing, attorney Nigel Hughes who represents Hart and Greenidge said he wanted to lay over reports of experts on the death penalty and how it affects the appellants. Attorney Latchmie Rahamat who represents Gordon supported Hughes’ application.
The three experts—two from the United Kingdom and the other from the United States will not be called to testify but rather their reports will form part of the appeal hearing when the matter is called again on March 15th.
Prosecutor Dionne McCamon objected to the experts themselves testifying but said that the state had no issue with their reports forming part of the appeal. She said, too, that the prosecution had no objections to the experts being so deemed.
She advanced that the experts would themselves be adding nothing that is peculiar to the appellants, nor would they be saying anything different than would be contained in their reports and so there is no need for them to be called to testify.
She said that from the defence’s application, the reports are of a general nature on the death penalty and address nothing specific to the appellants.
Acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards granted the application sought by the defence and adjourned the matter for hearing.
The defence was ordered to have the reports filed and served no later than February 11th. The state is then to respond by March 2nd and any final responses are to be in by March 9th ahead of the March 15th hearing.
The matter is being heard by the Chancellor and justices of appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory.
Following a High Court trial back in 2013 a jury had found Hart, Greenidge and Gordon guilty of murdering Ramdass. Justice Franklyn Holder would subsequently sentence them to death.
The prosecution’s case has been that the three killed Ramdass between August 20 and August 22, 2009, at Caiman Hole, East Bank Essequibo after robbing him of $17 million.
Trial prosecutor Judith Gildharie-Mursalin had said that at about 3.30 pm on August 20, Hart, Gordon and Greenidge were dressed in their uniforms and on a river patrol with the coastguard boat and armed with an M70 rifle with 90 rounds of ammunition.
The prosecutor had said that a transaction earlier that day saw Ramdass being handed a carton box containing some $17 million by two men identified as Kerwain Chance, called ‘Wild Cow’ and Paul Eastman after which Ramdass gave them a quantity of gold he had in a haversack.
According to Gildharie-Mursalin, Hart subsequently received certain information via his cell phone pertaining to a male East Indian wearing sunglasses and carrying a carton. As a result, they began stopping speedboats heading to Bartica in search of the man. Hart did not see the man he was looking for and they headed to the Parika Stelling, where a man matching the description was standing on the beach with a carton next to him. That man was Ramdass the court had been told.
According to evidence presented at trial, Hart went to Ramdass and asked him what he had in the box and Ramdass told him he had $17 million, Gildharie-Mursalin said. Upon hearing this, Hart told Ramdass that he had to arrest him and took him to the coastguard boat along with his box containing the money.
The court had heard that the three took Ramdass to Caiman Hole, where Hart instructed him to take off his clothes, leaving him with his boxer shorts. Greenidge then opened the carton and verified to Hart that the box had money. Ramdass was then thrown overboard and left there while the accused drove off in their boat with his cash.
They then went to the coastguard base, where they split the $17 million among themselves and then headed back to Parika, where Hart called his brother and told him to meet him at Parika with a taxi.
Gildharie-Mursalin had also told the jury that Gordon called his sister to collect his share of the cash, while Greenidge called his mother and told her to go to Parika. They handed over the cash to their respective relatives.
The mother was subsequently arrested at Parika with over $5 million and the three accused were taken into custody the same evening.
In Hart’s statement, he told police that at Caiman Hole, he, Greenidge and Gordon made Ramdass take off his clothes before throwing him into the Essequibo River. But Greenidge had said in his statement that Hart was the one who pushed Ramdass overboard, while Gordon said that he did not see who pushed Ramdass overboard.
However, in their defence to the court, they all denied ever picking up Ramdass in their boat and taking him to Caiman Hole. Instead, they said that they picked up a mixed male from Parika and dropped him to Hog Island, where they left him.
Witnesses had, however, testified to seeing Hart ordering Ramdass into the coastguard boat and subsequently leaving the Parika Stelling with the three coastguards.
