Sentenced to 80 years back in 2015 for the murder of taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo, whose burnt remains had been dumped on the Mocha Access Road in January 2010, Balram Singh has appealed both his conviction and sentence.
In his appeal which is set to come up for hearing on March 1st, Singh (the appellant), argues among other things that trial Judge Navindra Singh imposed a sentence which was “manifestly excessive.”
He said that the judge commenced the sentence at a base of 60 years for which there is no basis to support in law or otherwise.
The appellant through his attorney Nigel Hughes, said that the judge who then made additions to that base, did so without any jurisprudential basis, while arguing that murder is not aggravated by the fact that a felony has been committed, but that it was in the course of the commission of a felony that the murder occurred.
The appellant contends that additions by the judge for premeditation were done with no evidence to so support.
He argues, too, that a number of errors were committed by the judge; listing among them that he failed to adequately put his defence to the jury.
According to the appellant, such errors are irreparable.
The appeal will be heard by Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
On December 9th, 2015 a jury found Singh guilty of the capital offence which stated that he, between January 19th and 27th, 2010, murdered Sukhdeo.
According to a caution statement, which was admitted into evidence and read to the court, Singh confessed that he and an associate, Travis David, had murdered Sukhdeo.
The court had heard from the statement that David shot Singh in the left side of his neck with a .38 revolver and that they later dumped the body on the Mocha access road.
The prosecution had said that Sukhdeo, who operated his car outside Guyana Stores Limited, went missing on January 19, 2010 and was found eight days later.
