Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 17, 2018 Court Stories, News
In less than a year, 38-year-old Lakeraj Fredericks has been jailed for 22 and 65 years for manslaughter and murder respectively. Fredericks, who was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in jail last year May for the murder his brother-in-law, Clifton Bonus, was yesterday jailed for 22 years on a manslaughter charge. The custodial sentence was imposed on him by Justice Sandil Kissoon at the High Court in Georgetown.
Fredericks was escorted to court yesterday to face trial for the June 11, 2013 murder of 22-year-old Vernon Romaldo, which occurred at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara. The indictment was brought against him by State Prosecutors Lisa Cave and Mandel Moore, who called several witnesses including police officers who were ready to testify.
However, Fredericks who was represented by Attorney-at-law Maxwell McKay opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was subsequently jailed.
According to the prosecutors, on the evening of June 10, 2011, Fredericks and Romaldo’s brother-in-law were drinking at a house of the sister of the deceased. During that same night, an argument broke out between Fredericks and Romaldo; the sister, after hearing the argument tried to talk to them.
The sister then retired to bed, only to be awakened by groans. When she made checks, she saw Romaldo lying in a chair with what appeared to be a stab wound to his left side chest. Romaldo’s cause of death was given as perforation of the kidney, stomach and spleen due to a stab wound to the abdomen.
During a plea of mitigation, Maxwell told the court that his client has two children aged 10 and seven, and that he is now learning to read. According to the lawyer, his client has changed his life.
Fredericks in his address to the court said, “I am very sorry. It wasn’t my choice but I ended up buying this rum.
I baptized in prison and wouldn’t smoke marijuana again.”
In calculating a sentenced for Fredericks, Justice Kissoon started at a base of 30 years from which he subtracted two years for the early guilty plea. There was a further subtraction time spent on remand and expression of remorse respectively. However, there was six years for aggravating factors including grievous bodily harm.
After six years of incarceration and three trials in the High Court, Lakeraj was on May 8, 2017convicted of the murder of his brother-in-law Clifton Bonus which occurred on June 4, 2011.
He was sentenced by Justice Navindra Singh to serve a term of imprisonment of 65 years. Bonus’s body was found buried in a shallow grave at ‘Old English,’ Back Dam, Linden, days after he was reported missing.
Bonus, called “Mutts”, was shot twice in the head with a .32 pistol before he was buried almost three feet deep beneath groves of cannabis. It was reported that Fredericks and Bonus had an argument over some missing marijuana seeds, moments before he (Bonus) was shot and killed.
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