A now 20-year-old man who, when he was 15, fatally stabbed Hemant Persaud in his heart during a robbery, was on Tuesday sentenced to a term of imprisonment for 12 years, from which time is to be deducted for the more than five years he had spent on remand awaiting trial.
During his remarks at the sentencing hearing, Justice Sandil Kissoon underscored that the young man was being sentenced in accordance with guidelines set out in the Juvenile Justice Act, since he was a child when he committed the offence.
Notwithstanding that he is now an adult, because he committed the offence as a minor, the young man in accordance with the Act, continues to be entitled to certain protections—among them—his identity being withheld from publication.
After he would have been released from prison, Justice Kissoon has ordered that the young offender be placed on a three-year probation period, with strict reporting conditions.
As a condition of his probation, he is to enroll at either the Government Technical Institute or Guyana Industrial Training Centre to complete a course in electrical insulation; and the Judge has ordered that he be presented with a progress report of his attendance and performance every three months.
If the offender fails to adhere to the probation and supervision orders, Justice Kissoon has further ordered that he be imprisoned to serve an additional 24 months.
The young man had been originally indicted for murder but pleaded last month to the lesser charge of manslaughter; accepting that he unlawfully killed Persaud on February 19th, 2017.
“I lacked guidance—physical, spiritual, mental and emotional,” he had told Justice Kissoon following his arraignment.
Begging for mercy, the young man would then go on to plead with the Judge for an opportunity to correct what he described as his “wrongdoing,” and to continue his academic endeavours which he said he has commenced in prison.
In his brief address to the court, he had said that his aim is to one day be able to contribute meaningfully to society.
Defence attorney Alaira Murphy-Goodman appeared on behalf of the young offender.
Persaud called `Bhim’, 51, the brother of former Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, was fatally stabbed by the youth at the Stabroek Market.
Persaud and another man were at the market square making a purchase, when the youngster attacked and stabbed him; before snatching the gold chain he was wearing and fleeing.
Prosecutor Muntaz Ali who read the facts which were not disputed by the defence, said the offender had related that he stabbed the man after he resisted his attempts to snatch the chain and because the man tried to fend him off.
The court heard that after Persaud succeeded in hitting the young man, the offender told investigator that he in turn rushed into the man with the knife he was carrying.
With the help of eyewitnesses, police investigators later contacted the teen who in the company of his mother admitted to the crime.
Ali said that the injured Persaud was rushed to the hospital, but later succumbed to the stab wound he sustained to his chest.
The cause of death was given as perforation of the heart due to a stab wound, compounded by blunt trauma to the head.
