The two remaining convicts in the Black Bush Polder 2016 triple murder were on Monday each sentenced to three life sentences.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Sandil Kissoon said each life sentence is 30 years, and he ordered that they run concurrently.
The sentences were handed down following guilty pleas to the lesser count of manslaughter.
Carlon Chaitram and Rakesh Karamchand had earlier pleaded guilty and were awaiting sentencing. They admitted that, between July 21 and 22, 2016, they murdered Pawan Chandradeo, 38; his son Jaikarran Chandradeo, 15; and his brother-in-law Naresh Rooplall, 33, at Cookrite Savannah in Black Push Polder.
The Judge noted that the murderers were involved in a deliberate, highfalutin attack by shooting the victims individually at close range with a 12-guage shotgun.
He said the extensive aggravating factors and the absence of mitigating circumstances make them culpable of the act, as they were involved in another criminal offence in the course of a joint criminal enterprise, acting in collusion, and the four took a joint decision to execute the victims to conceal their identity and their crime.
The trio had gone to the backdam to fish while three of the murderers had gone to the backdam to steal fuel from a rice farmer. They had taken ten 5-gallon jars for the fuel. One of the accused had told the court that, after he had fired the first two shots, the victims fell to the ground, and he then went over them and shot then at close range to their heads to ensure that they were killed. When the bodies were found, there were still cast nets tied to their hands.
Before passing the sentence, Justice Kissoon asked Carlon Chaitram if he had anything to say.
Begging the court for mercy, Chetram asked for another chance. He told the court that he would take care of the children of the deceased. He said he would provide sustenance for them every time he reaps rice. He said the court should consider the fact that he did not waste the court’s time in a trial, and as such he should be given a reduced sentence.
Chetram pleaded with the court, saying that he was going to give a tractor and land to the wife, mother and sister of the three deceased.
“I beg you, please give me another chance,” he appealed to the court.
When asked what he has done for the family since the 2016 incident, he admitted that he had not reached out to them.
The three life sentences were handed to him, and they will run concurrently.
Earlier, there were probation reports presented in favour of the accused. However, the Judge found that the reports did not help the defence’s cause.
In arriving at the appropriate sentence, the trial Judge quoted several cases in which the court had passed sentences on persons who participated in killings but were not the ‘trigger man’.
Earlier, the number one accused, 24-year-old Jairam Chaitram, pleaded guilty to murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Although a teenager, Jairam Chaitram was the man who had pulled the trigger, resulting in the death of the three.
“In other words, you are to spend the rest of your life in prison,” Justice Kissoon had told the 24-year-old man who had confessed to killing the fishermen.
Jagmohan, who opted to have a trial, was found guilty and sentenced to death. The State’s case was presented by Attorney-at-Law Abigail Gibbs.
