Andy Boodram was yesterday handed a life sentence by Justice Navindra Singh after being found guilty by a jury of chopping his neighbour, who had asked him to turn down the volume of the music he was playing.

Boodram, 32, a father of three, appeared visibly shocked as did his relatives when the judge announced the sentence.

Given a chance to speak, Boodram called ‘Boy,’ said he was in a fight with the complainant, Deonarine Persaud, called ‘Anil,’ but maintained that he never chopped him.

“It was a fight, but I didn’t chop Anil,” the convict said, while casting the blame on someone else, whom he claimed to have also been a part of the fight.

Boodram had been indicted for attempted murder and the jury found him not guilty by a proportion of 11 to 1. It was on the alternative count of felonious wounding that he was however, convicted by a proportion of 10 to 2. The jury found him guilty of wounding Persaud on September 24th, 2011, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause him serious bodily harm.

Defence attorney George Thomas had begged the court for the most minimum of sentences, advancing that his client had no previous conviction.

For her part, however, Prosecutor Abigail Gibbs advanced that having been found guilty by his peers, Boodram needed to pay the full consequences of his actions.

She asked the court to consider the effect the injuries have had on the complainant, while highlighting the several surgeries he has had to undergo and the extent of those operations.

Of concern to the prosecutor also was the fact that Boodram used a cutlass to inflict the injuries. She impressed upon the court that the type of weapon used needed to be considered as well.

Before imposing the sentence, Justice Singh asked Boodram whether he was maintaining that it was someone else who had chopped the complainant, to which he responded in the affirmative.

Thereafter, the judge noted that for the offence committed, the law provides for life imprisonment and flogging.

“But I will not sentence you to flogging. I will sentence you to life imprisonment,” the judge declared.

“That is the sentence of the court,” Justice Singh told the shocked Boodram.

In his testimony, Persaud had recalled being chopped several times by Boodram, whom he had asked to lower his music as his sick infant son had been sleeping at the time.

Despite repeated appeals, however, the witness said Boodram, who hurled a series of expletives at him and refused to lower the volume of the music.

Persaud had told the court that as he stood conversing with a friend in front of his yard, he heard the friend exclaim, “Anil run! Boy coming with a cutlass!”

He said he did not run at that time and just as he turned towards the direction from which his attacker was coming, he encountered the man swinging a cutlass in front of him.

In the midst of inflicting numerous broadsides, Persaud said that Boodram chopped him twice on the head and once to his left thumb as he tried to bar the chops. He showed the court the scars which he said were the result of the attack.

Persaud said he fell to the ground and remembered clearly seeing the accused standing over, and still broadsiding him, moments before losing consciousness. He later woke in the Georgetown Public Hospital.

He recalled being hospitalised for some six months, during which time he had to undergo several surgeries and had to do numerous follow-up treatments.

The defence contended, however, that it was Boodram who was attacked by Persaud and another person.

According to Thomas, the other person in whose company Persaud was at the time, had been wielding the cutlass at Boodram but it missed and connected with Persaud instead, resulting in the injuries he sustained.

Under cross-examination, the complainant disagreed with counsel’s suggestion that it was a fight and that he was injured during a scuffle.

He also disagreed with Thomas’ suggestion that he was armed and that he was “making up the story” maintaining that it was Boodram who had chopped him.

A West Coast Berbice man, Krishna Tulapersaud of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice was yesterday sentenced to a total of 65 years on two counts of rape.

After the jury came back with a guilty verdict on both counts of rape, yesterday afternoon, Justice Sandil Kissoon sentenced the man to 14 years on the first count, and then gave him 51 years on the second count. The sentences will run consecutively.

According to the case, the incidents occurred on more than one occasion.

He was represented by attorney at law, Charrandas Persaud.

Sheldon Lynch was yesterday afternoon sentenced to two consecutive life sentences by Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall after he was convicted of raping a child on two occasions, beginning when she was 10.

After about three hours of deliberations, a 12-member jury returned its unanimous verdicts, convicting Lynch on two of the four counts levelled against him for raping the same child.

Lynch was convicted for raping the child in December of 2010 and November of 2011.

The jury was, however, unable to arrive at verdicts for charges that he had also raped the child on January 1st and December 31st of 2012; and then again on January 25th of 2013.

The judge ordered that Lynch spend a minimum of 35 years on each conviction before being paroled.

Given a chance to speak, the tearful 46-year-old father of two maintained his innocence, while he attempted to question the court on aspects of the evidence.

“The jury has found you guilty,” the judge, however, stated, even as she admonished him to wisely use the opportunity he had been given to address the court before sentencing.

Explaining to Lynch that the trial had already ended, Justice Morris-Ramlall further reminded the convict that he had been represented by counsel who had the leverage of cross-examining witnesses.

“My Honour, I am speaking the truth; I did not do anything,” Lynch maintained.

Meanwhile, in a plea of mitigation, defence attorney Clyde Forde begged on his client’s behalf for mercy, and the imposition of a sentence “as lenient as possible,” while noting that the man has two young children he would like the opportunity of seeing grow up.

Counsel advanced that a severe sentence would take Lynch away from his children.

Meanwhile, the victim, now 18, according to an impact statement read to the court, spoke of the trauma and fear she still experiences from the assault and her desire of seeing Lynch punished for what he did to her.

The statement was read by Social Worker of Blossom Inc., Renesha Calendar, who said the young woman spoke of being raped repeatedly by Lynch and the many threats he would make to her not to tell anyone. “My life changed after he raped me,” the statement quoted her as saying.

Because of the shame she felt from the assault, she reported that she dropped out of school and had tried to commit suicide.

The young woman also spoke of her childhood being destroyed and the difficulty and fear she has in having relationships.

Noting that she had considered the nature and circumstances under which the assault occurred, Justice Morris-Ramlall told the convict that the child had trusted and became fond of him “until you changed and treated her like your woman.”

“At age 10 you violated her repeatedly…,” the judge said. “She is still a long way from recovering, if ever,” the judge went on to say.

Justice Morris-Ramlall noted too that while counsel had begged for mercy, the convict showed no remorse nor regard for the verdict of his peers, neither personally, nor through his lawyer.

There must be a “balancing act” when weighing justice and mercy, the judge said.

The judge thereafter sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences, ordering that he spends a minimum of 35 years on each charge before becoming eligible for parole.

The state was represented by prosecutors Orinthia Schmidt and Seeta Bishundial.

The trial proceedings were held in-camera at the Sexual Offences Court of the Georgetown High Court.

After admitting to killing his father-in-law, whom he bludgeoned to the head with an axe, Veeram Dias was yesterday sentenced to spend the next 14 years behind bars by Justice Sandil Kissoon.

Dias was one of three persons charged with murdering Nonpareil pensioner Roger Manikam.

A fourth person, Devon Brown, who had been charged with being an accessory to the crime after he helped dispose of the body walked out the court a free man yesterday after the judge informed him that he would be granted remission for the two years he had been awaiting trial. Two years is the maximum penalty for the crime of being an accessory after the fact.

Both Dias and Brown threw themselves at the mercy of the court yesterday morning, accepting responsibility for their respective roles in the crime.

Dias pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder but admitted instead to the lesser count of manslaughter, accepting that he had unlawfully killed Manikam on April 2nd, 2016.

For his part, Brown admitted that he, knowing that Dias, Nalinie Manikam and another person had murdered Roger, did on that day and thereafter, receive, relieve, comfort and assisted them.

Nalinie is the daughter of the deceased.

Presenting the prosecution’s case, state attorney Mandel Moore said that the now dead Manikam was lured into the kitchen of his 237 Section B Nonpareil house by Dias, Nalinie’s reputed husband, who also lived at the address.

The court heard that there, Dias unleashed blows on the man, hitting him to the head with an axe. Although the man fell, he thereafter continued inflicting more blows.

The prosecutor said that sometime after Dias called his friend Brown to the scene and they both placed Manikam’s body in Brown’s car and drove to the Coldingen Embankment Road, where they dumped the body.

The cause of death, Moore said, was given as severe haemorrhaging, resulting from blunt trauma to the head.

In a plea of mitigation, attorney Latchmie Rahamat, who represented Dias, sought to impress upon the court that while her client takes full responsibility for his actions, there were certain existing circumstances which precipitated the drastic actions he took on the fateful day.

After fully disclosing to the court the circumstances, including the physical abuse of Nalinie, Rahamat, citing case law, begged the court to be merciful to the young first-time offender.

She asked the court to also consider that the 22-year-old had pleaded guilty at the first given opportunity, saving the court considerable time in otherwise having to conduct a trial.

Noting that her client was only 21 years old when the offence was committed, counsel stressed that her client, who turns 23 later this month, not only took responsibility for his actions but has also expressed remorse for those actions.

She said he realises that his actions resulted in loss of life.

Counsel also described her client as being a model prisoner, while noting that he is very active in Bible studies behind bars.

Given a chance to address the court, Dias, in a tearful voice, said that he was sorry, while noting that it was only because of the circumstances to which his attorney had earlier alluded, that he did what he did.

“Please have mercy on me,” he quietly begged the judge.

Meanwhile, presenting his plea in mitigation on behalf of Brown, whom he represented, attorney Dexter Todd said that the father of two, who was 24 years old at the time, had no antecedents.

The lawyer said his client related receiving a call from Dias on the night of the killing requesting a vehicle jumpstart and thereafter proceeded to his friend’s home.

Upon arrival, Todd said that Brown was told certain things, but had at that time been unaware of the killing. He stressed that all his client had been told was that “there was an incident.”

Thereafter, counsel said that Brown, because of his ignorance of the law, proceeded to assist his friend, under the misconception that because he had not been present during the killing, he would not be held responsible for nothing.

Todd said that it was only after his arrest that Brown realized his error and the fact that he should have made a police report.

Noting that his client has had time to think about his actions, Todd pleaded with the court for mercy, advancing that if there is a person fit to return to society, it would be Brown.

Addressing Brown, Justice Kissoon said that statute provides for a maximum of years, but since he had already spent that behind bars, with remission he would be free to go.

The visibly-relieved Brown, moments before his handcuffs were released, expressed his gratitude to the court.

For Dias, however, the judge commenced sentencing at a base of 30 years, explaining that the statute so stipulates for guilty pleas to manslaughter. From that he deducted eight years for the youth’s early plea.

Another five years were deducted for his lawyer’s plea in mitigation and an additional one year was subtracted for the remorse expressed by Dias.

From the remaining 16 years, the court granted remission for the two years he has been incarcerated.

While noting that the court was moved by his attorney’s plea in mitigation, the judge made it clear to Dias that his actions had to be viewed in the context of a civilised society, while adding, “Your conduct cannot be justified.”

Manikam, 65, was discovered near a drain, some five corners from his house, along the Coldingen Embankment Road. There was a chop wound to the back of his head.

A year after being charged with shooting at a hotel employee, 70-year-old Leila Jagdeo was yesterday sentenced to 18 months in jail after being found guilty of the crime.

Jagdeo, of Lot 3 Ogle, East Coast Demerara, was found guilty of discharging a loaded firearm at Brandon Collins on March 30th, 2017.

Collins, a maintenance worker of the Alpha Hotel at Ogle, was clearing vines from the hotel’s fence when he was asked to leave, by Jagdeo, the owner of the house next door.

A hotel staffer had claimed that Collins had turned his back to remove himself from the fence when the woman shot him.

“He had been trimming the trees that was over the fence. He had finished the front and was working at the back and the woman was standing on her verandah. She turned and tell him to come off the fence before she shoot him,” the employee, who asked not to be named, had related to this newspaper.

Collins, of Manchester, Corentyne, Berbice, was admitted at the Georgetown Public Hospital for some time after the shooting.