Richard Harrichand was yesterday afternoon sentenced to four years behind bars for the 2019 killing of Supenaam, Essequibo youth, Clive Osborne, 17.
Harrichand had been initially indicted for the capital offence but communicated to the court through his attorney last month, his desire to plead to the lesser count of manslaughter.
When he appeared before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Suddie, the accused admitted guilt—accepting—that he unlawfully killed Osborne on June 8th, 2019.
His sentencing had been deferred to facilitate the presentation of a probation report.
Presenting a plea in mitigation at the sentencing hearing yesterday, defence attorney Lachmi Dindayal asked the Court to consider the positive review of his client, as was indicated by the probation report.
The probation officer would have described him as a “quiet, honest and industrious person,” Dindayal asked the judge to note.
The lawyer advanced for consideration, too, that his client has had no previous brushes with the law, is a model prisoner, and was truly sorry for his actions; even as he emphasized his intentions to change his life around for a better future.
He then commended for the Court’s recollection, that his client’s response on the day in question was “in the spur of the moment,” as opposed to any form of premeditation on his part.
For her part, Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken asked the Court to have regard for the fact that a weapon was used in the commission of the offence—a knife—and the injury the deceased would have sustained to his heart.
On this point she reminded that the autopsy had revealed that the teen died from perforation of the heart due to a stab wound.
She said that in considering the story Harrichand would have advanced, his actions were above and beyond what was necessary.
Against that background, she asked the judge to impose a sentence which would reflect the nature and gravity of the offence.
The two had been involved in a fight during which Osborne was stabbed.
Justice Singh commenced sentence at a base of 30 years from which he made deductions for the offender’s early plea, expression of remorse, cooperation with investigators, the favourable probation report, his youthfulness at the time the offence was committed and time he would have spent in pretrial custody.
In total, 26 years were deducted.
The judge pointed out that six years would have been deducted for expression of remorse, but he decided instead to take off only three, noting that while Harrichand did say that he was sorry for the loss of life, he immediately went on to provide a seeming justification for his actions. Remorse, the judge said, needs to be genuine and unequivocal.
