Gomeshwar Perez, the Corentyne man who was charged in 2020 with the murders of Canadian hotelier Vivekanand Brijbassi and his watchman Harry Persaud, yesterday opted to plead guilty to the lesser counts of manslaughter when he appeared at the High Court in Berbice.
Perez, who was 16 years old when he was charged with the murders, appeared yesterday before Justice Simone Morris Ramlall at the High Court in Berbice where he entered guilty pleas to manslaughter.
It was alleged that between December 19, and December 27, 2019, at Sunsplash Hotel, Number 63 Village, he murdered Brijbassi and Prashad.
At that stage he was the second person to be charged with the murders. Farmer Alvin Durant had also been charged and remanded to prison.
The decomposing bodies of Brijbassi, 71, who was the owner of Sunsplash Holiday Beach Resort at Number 63 Beach, and his watchman, Prashad, 59, of Number 68 Village, Corentyne, were found bound and gagged in the balcony area of the upper flat of the two-storey facility on December 27, 2019.
It was reported that the men died as a result of shock and haemorrhaging due to multiple injuries they had sustained. The police had said that Brijbassi was discovered with two toes from his left foot severed, while Prashad was found with both hands tied behind his back onto a post and his left foot completely severed at the ankle.
Brijbassi reportedly arrived in Guyana on September 20, 2019 and was last seen by his sister Krishna Boodram on December 19, 2019, when he visited her home and had dinner with her.
She had related that her brother had been afraid of staying at the hotel but it seemed that he had made up his mind to stay there. She had questioned him about whether he was scared to reside at the building, and he had told her that he had two friends staying with him, one of whom was identified as Prashad.
During the investigation, it was reported that two accused stole from the hotelier.
