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Oct 22, 2013 News
A Corentyne man who was charged with murdering his father at age 13, and given a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter, was on Monday sentenced to 20 years in jail by Justice Dawn Gregory when he appeared before her in the Berbice High Court on another murder charge after he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
Toney Ramraj, 24, of 56 Village Corentyne appeared before Justice Gregory charged with killing Rojen Basdeo, called ‘Pojorie’ of number 55 Village between January 20 and January 21, 2012.
The incident took place at the Number 57 Village Backlands. Prosecutor Renita Singh told the court that on January 20, 2012 Ramraj, and the now deceased Rojen Basdeo and two others, were at Basdeo’s camp in the back dam drinking. During the night Ramraj left Basdeo’s camp and went to his camp a little distance away, collected two cutlasses and returned to Basdeo’s camp.
He then went upstairs and chopped Basdeo twice on the neck. He then told the other two men to go with him to sleep at his camp.
Basdeo was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A post mortem examination performed on the body by Dr. Vivakanand Bridgemohan, concluded that Basdeo died from shock and hemorrhage caused by an incise wound to the neck.
The prosecutor stated that Ramraj was subsequently arrested. He told investigators that he and the deceased were friends and that he knew him for over 10 years.
On the day in question he and the others were at the camp consuming Vodka. During the night he was playing music from his cellular phone which was on the table. The lamp subsequently went out and when it was relit his phone was missing. He inquired about his phone but got no response. Then he and Basdeo got into an argument.
He said that he left and went to his camp collected two cutlasses and returned to Basdeo’s camp where he inflicted the injuries. He then returned to his camp and slept. He later woke up and got away but was soon after arrested by police.
The prosecutor said that in 2002, when the accused was only 13 years old, he murdered his father. She related that the man stabbed his sleeping father in his chest. For that offence he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter and received a three-year jail sentence.
She asked the court to take that into consideration when sentencing.
Attorney-at-law Sasha Roberts who represented the accused told the court that he shared a common law relationship. She said he is the seventh of 14 siblings and started working at the age of eight. “He was part of a home troubled by domestic violence.”
She said that Ramraj referred to his father as a violent man and on the day in question he was defending himself. She asked the court to take into consideration that he did not waste the courts time and his age.
Justice Gregory stated that she took a number of factors into consideration including the age of the accused, his previous conviction, that he a did not waste the court’s time and of importance, that he was given a chance after his first misdemeanor to reform himself but failed.
The judge said that she had a 25-year sentence in mind, but will deduct the 2 ½ years that he spent in jail and a further six years for pleading guilty. But she stated that she will add on some years for the act which was committed as a form of retaliation.
She also looked at the fact that he committed murder before and was given a light sentence. “Instead of changing and making good use of the opportunity you committed the same offence.” As such she imposed a sentence of 20 years.
The accused bowed his head in court throughout the ordeal and cried. No one appeared in court for the accused.
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