Handed two life sentences back in May for the killing of two men whom he shot, Orpheus Johnson has lodged an appeal with the Guyana Court of Appeal in which he complains that the sentences are severe.
While he has expressed in his notice of appeal his intention to add more grounds on which his appeal would be based, the Appellant has so far only complained of his sentences being too harsh.
Citing what trial judge Sandil Kissoon had described as the “reckless, callous and merciless” manner in which Johnson shot and killed the two men and then attempted to murder the fiancée and 18-month-old child of one of them, the life sentences were imposed.
Among other things, Justice Kissoon had described Johnson as a “serious danger to society” whose existence thus far “speaks of a life of crime;” adding that the cases against him make for a “homicide novel.”
Johnson had initially been indicted with murdering Travis Rudder and Gladstone George in 2015, but pleaded to the lesser offences of manslaughter in relation to both killings.
Though Johnson had willingly accepted the roles he had played in each of the killings, and admitted that he had also attempted to murder Rudder’s fiancée, Mawanza Gill, and their 18-month-old son, Jaheem Rudder; at his sentencing he reverted to maintaining his innocence of the charges.
His attorney Rachael Bakker had only asked the judge on behalf of her client to be merciful to him.
Justice Kissoon had said that Johnson’s matters fell into the category of “the worst of the worst” for which that life sentences were warranted, while noting that there were no mitigating circumstances to warrant a lighter sentence.
He, however, ordered that the sentences be served concurrently, with eligibility for parole only after serving 30 years.
For the attempt on the lives of Gill and her son, the judge imposed a sentence of 20 years each which he said are also to run concurrently with the life sentences.
At his arraignment on April 13th, Johnson had accepted that on April 22nd, 2015 he unlawfully killed Gladstone George who at the time was a passenger of a minibus on the Agricola Public Road.
He next admitted to killing Nandy Park miner, Travis Rudder, two months later; and also to charges of attempting to kill the man’s fiancée, Gill, and their 18-month-old son.
