Lakeraj Fredericks who had filed an appeal against his 2017 conviction for the murder of his brother-in-law was yesterday given a reduced sentence after arguing that the 65-year term imposed was severe but his argument that the trial judge did not properly put his defence to the jury was dismissed.
Fredericks had been convicted in 2017 by a jury for shooting and killing Clifton Bonus between June 1, 2011 and June 8, 2011 at a farm in Linden.
The matter was then taken before the Guyana Court of Appeal where the appeal was heard by acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory. Fredericks’ attorney Rachael Bakker argued that the judge did not sufficiently guard against imputations of fact by the jury regarding evidence introduced in the trial by some witnesses, nor was he “careful to properly assess, advise and caution” the jury concerning the nature of certain evidence. On top of that, Bakker argued that the 60 years with an added five years for the use of a firearm is not only severe, but that it was not in conformity either with modern sentencing guidelines.
Counsel for the state—Diana Kaulesar-O’Brien had argued that having been convicted of the capital offence, it was within the discretion of the trial judge to fix the sentence. She had also added that the trial judge did consider mitigating factors which had been presented by Fredericks’ attorney prior to sentencing and that the Court was asked to balance the need for deterrence with the prisoner demonstrating positive changes towards reformation and being reintroduced into society.
During the virtual hearing yesterday, Justice of Appeal Persaud, informed that the decision by the Appellate Court is that the 65-year sentence is severe. He said that 27 years would have served justice instead. Hence, the sentence was reduced to 27 years behind bars. But the other ground which Fredericks’ appeal rested on, that the judge erred in admitting the caution statement into evidence in what his lawyer described as the “weighty suspicion” surrounding the manner in which it had been obtained, was dismissed.
According to the caution statement which was admitted in evidence, Fredericks told the police that after an argument on a farm where he planted marijuana, a person whose name he gave as “Ronald,” handed him a gun to shoot Bonus, and he did, but he did not die. The statement detailed that Fredericks then handed the gun back to “Ronald,” who in turn shot Bonus in the head, killing him. “Ronald” and the convict then dug a 2½-ft. shallow grave at the back of the old airstrip at Linden and buried Bonus. Trial judge, Justice Navindra Singh had handed down the sentence back in 2017.
