Micah Williams who is serving two life sentences for rape yesterday had his appeal dismissed when the Guyana Court of Appeal found that the sentences which are currently running concurrently were appropriate.
The Court also affirmed his conviction and sentencing. Williams, a trade unionist, was found guilty in 2018 of raping and sodomizing a girl between the ages of seven and eight in January and December of 2016 and in January 2017.
Williams mainly argued in his appeal that his sentence, which was imposed by the High Court, was excessive and that two persons conspired against him. Additionally, in his appeal, he argued that he was not the one who interfered with the virtual complainant but rather it was a 14-year-old who did. He contended that the child was being influenced by two persons to implicate him in the offences.
However, Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, alongside Justices of Appeal, Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud yesterday said that they found “merit” in the decision which was initially handed down by the trial judge, Justice Jo-Ann Barlow. Based on their findings, Chancellor Cummings-Edwards said that the prosecution, in their report, had noted that the sentencing was not manifestly excessive to which the Court of Appeal also agreed with, since it is accorded with the facts of the offence and the overall case. She further added that the trial judge imposed the sentencing in keeping with the principles of the High Court.
In April of 2018, Williams was found guilty and was sentenced to life behind bars for raping the child between January 1st and December 31st of 2016. He was further found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for sodomizing the girl on January 2nd of 2017. Along with the sentences, Justice Barlow had also ordered that the convict must serve a minimum of 20 years before being eligible for parole.
When he appeared in 2018 before the said Justice Barlow and the decision of life imprisonment was handed down, Williams told the court that he found the jury’s’ verdict “strange”, as such he decided to challenge that verdict. Williams was represented by attorneys, Nigel Hughes, Kiswanna Jefford and Ronald J. Daniels while the state was represented by Counsel Cicelia Corbin, Caressa Henry and Marisa Edwards.
